


Snart and Scofield to the Company Came

by laCommunarde



Category: Prison Break, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Cancer, Child Abuse, F/M, Gen, Len Mick and Lisa are ten years younger but everyone else is canon age, Leonard Snart is 33, Lincoln Burrows is 33, M/M, Michael Scofield is 29, Mick Rory is 35, Past Child Abuse, Prison Break typical level of violence, Scofield and Burrows Family Feels, Snart Family Feels, Starts during Season 2 of Prison Break (but spoilers through season 4), Surgery, Torture, spoilers for Prison Break Season 1-4, the characters who die are not one anyone minds seeing die but they are major i guess, the events of the Flash happen ten years earlier
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-19 21:23:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 52,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8225197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laCommunarde/pseuds/laCommunarde
Summary: When Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows swing by Central City to get a potential plan B for getting to Panama (in case they need it), they are mistaken for Leonard Snart and Mick Rory. Leonard Snart, who is laying low (not in Central City) is mistaken for Scofield. Once their identities are straightened out, Len, Mick and Lisa and the Flash team decide they are going to help the brothers (and Sucre, Sara Tancredi, and LJ) find out why the Company wants them, and the Rogues call in a few favors.





	1. A Case of Mistaken Identities

Michael was asleep in the passenger seat when Linc pulled up to the warehouse. Linc looked down at the man who had planned everything, even on what he was unable to plan on the outside, even several backup plans, and tattooed the plans onto himself, and then had successfully broken them out of prison and evaded police and FBI capture, the man who had done all that for him, his little brother.

“Michael,” he said. 

Michael sat up and blinked to full alertness far too fast to be fully asleep. Linc wondered how long it had been since Michael had had a good night’s rest and then found himself wondering if they would ever sleep soundly again. Maybe after they reached Panama. “Good. We’re here,” Michael said after checking out the window.

“What are we picking up here?”

“A just-in-case thing in the center of town a day from now. I’ve allowed us three days. But this area is crawling with people who won’t answer any questions from the police and we can get a hot shower and a good night’s sleep. How much money do we have?”

“Not a lot.”

“Pull into the warehouse.” Linc did. They closed and locked the car doors. “The hotel is that way.”

“Where are you going?”

“To check out the area. Meet me in the bar after you’re checked in.”

Linc walked up to the hotel Michael indicated, noting that the bar Michael headed to was called Sinners & Saints. Neon lights. Trashy. He liked it. He walked into the hotel and checked out the walls. Surprisingly, there wasn’t the usual print out of their mugshots taped to any wall. Instead, there were a couple movies on a bookshelf and a scrawny guy watching tv behind the counter who didn’t look up when he entered.

He approached the counter. “Hey.” 

“What do you want?” comes the greeting, without even a glance up.

He raises an eyebrow. “What do I look like I want? I want a room.”

The guy glanced up and back at the tv. “Any damage, you’re paying for it.”

“Why would there be any damage? Huh?” Linc asked.

The guy turned to give him an incredulous stare. “I don’t know, man. I just give you the same warning I give everyone.” His voice was dripping with sarcasm. Linc narrowed his eyes. The guy grabbed a key and put it on the counter. “Here’s your key. Hey, and no illegal shit either. Don’t mind being a temporary hideout, but bring any cops down-.”

“I’m just looking for a place to stay, man,” Linc interrupted. The guy knew. That was the only reason for saying that. Still, he seemed to be a mix of not caring and just protecting himself. Reaching for a phone didn’t seem to have occurred to him, and unlike the other place they had been recognized, he seemed to be more worried about the cops coming than about giving their location. Linc wondered where Michael had found this place and if the entire area was like this. 

The guy behind the counter coughed a laugh. “Your partner in a snit or something happen to that last place of yours?” 

Wait. That didn’t sound like the guy knew. Either that or he meant Michael, in which case, he knew more than they wanted him to. Still, partner? For clarification, he prompted, “What partner?”

The guy sighed. “I don’t know what’s going on that you gotta pull that act. But if that’s the story you wanna go with, fine. I ain’t dumb enough to turn you in. My rules are: No damage. No bringing cops. Nothing illegal up there. No using this hotel for kidnapping. Do that somewhere else.” The guy dangled the keys. 

Linc decided to find out more later and to go tell Michael immediately. He took the keys. “Yeah, that’s fine. Someone else will be staying with me. That okay?”

“As I said. No damage. No cops. Nothing illegal. No kidnapping.” 

“Yeah, I got it.” Linc would say they were made, except the guy didn’t seem about to turn them or anyone in.

“Listen, no attracting the Flash neither,” the guy said after Linc had pocketed the key.

“Huh?” Linc asked.

“Man, you play dumb too much. I know it’s none of my business-.”

“Good. Then butt out.”

The guy held up his hands. Linc nodded left. “Elevator this way?”

The guy raised his hands in a full shrug. 

“Just asking, man,” Linc answered and set off to find the elevators by himself. He found it broken and took the stairs up to the top floor then set his stuff down inside the door of the room. He checked out the window in the stairwell for cops up and down the street and for the few blocks he could see or the sound of nearby sirens. There weren’t any. He went down to meet Michael at the bar.

\--

Michael was sitting at a high table in the corner of the bar when he walked in. He stopped by the door and sighed, studying his little brother, the one who had gotten himself arrested to save his life, organized a prison break and was now orchestrating their getaway with that brilliant brain of his, but still his little brother and his job to take care of. That brother looked tired, like he had aged five years in the past five months, and was still favoring his left shoulder, which meant he was still feeling the burn on his right shoulder blade, even if he pretended not to. Other things Linc had noticed as well, his brother was still naïve, still wanted to think the best of people, but that was fading, and in here, showed no sign. In here, his hyper-awareness of his surroundings wasn’t down for a second – evidenced by how tense he held himself and how deliberately he moved. Linc wondered if he would ever let it down again. Another thing to add to the once they were in Panama list. 

Someone nodded at Michael. Michael inclined his head. Linc didn’t like the recognition that was in the guy’s eyes. 

“Michael.” He walked up to the table. Michael turned to him. “Let’s go. We’ve been made.”

Michael looked around. “Who?”

“The guy you nodded at. And the guy in the hotel.”

Michael nodded. “They recognized us, yes. But they won’t report us, correct?”

Linc stared at him. “What is this place?”

“Cops don’t come to this neighborhood if they can help it. So nobody calls,” Michael answered.

Linc looked at his brother, wondering what kind of research he had done that had told him that. Then he saw that the guy who had nodded at Michael was still watching them out of the corner of his eye and started across the room in the guy’s direction. 

The guy held up his hands, backing up. “Hey, hey, hey! I didn’t mean nothing! Don’t light me on fire!”

Linc grabbed the guy’s shoulder and pushed him towards the table where Michael was. “I’m not going to light you on fire. Now walk. We want to talk.”

The guy swallowed then walked over to Michael’s table. Michael kicked out a chair from the table. Linc pushed the guy into it. 

“Uh. What do you want to talk about? Do you need a pickpocket for a job or something?” The guy glanced at Linc, but was primary talking to Michael. 

“You seem to recognize us.”

“Uh…” The guy looked from one brother to the other. “Yeah.”

“Will you report us?”

The guy gaped a little. “No, man. What’d I report you for anyway? Everyone’s really impressed by what you did.”

Michael met Linc’s eyes. Linc seemed just as confused. “What we did?”

“Disappearing on the face on the earth and all.” Oh, there was that. “Is this about a job?”

Linc shrugged. “No, it’s not.”

Michael said, “Yes, it is. How are your pickpocketing skills?”

Linc turned away with a swear on his lips. 

The guy looked worshipful. 

Michael added, “I need a job done tomorrow. Someone to pick a key out of a Dr. Elias’ pocket to his place of business and walk it over to me.”

The guy nodded, trying to put a serious expression on his face and realizing he was failing, broke into a grin. “Sure, man. I won’t let you down.”

Linc said, “Aren’t you gonna ask about payment?”

The guy turned to look back over his shoulder and tensed up again. “I’m sure whatever you pay will be good.”

Michael nodded. “We’ll discuss it after the job.” The guy nodded. “So, every morning at 8:30am, Dr. Elias goes to get coffee at the Jitters at 5th and Poplar Blvd. Tomorrow, he will be doing the same. His keys should have a card on them that is for his lab. I need that card. Then go to wait by the bus stop across the street. If nobody is following you, I will meet you there.” The guy nodded again, grinned again, and seemed about to comment.

Linc grunted at him. He looked terrified again. “Get outta here.”

The guy nodded and made a beeline for the door. Linc sat down next to Michael. “What was that?”

“I don’t know, but near as I can tell, we’re celebrities in this part of Central City.”

Linc threw back his head and laughed. Michael seemed surprised at first, but then broke into a smile, then a small laugh as well.

\--

Eating was an experience. Everyone recognized them. Everyone gave them a wide berth. No one seemed about to call the cops. Nonetheless, Michael kept flinching every time someone’s eyes lingered on them too long. Linc noted it and began giving whoever was staring at them a glare, which got them to mind their own business fast. Linc was impressed. He didn’t think he was that scary. 

They went back to the hotel. “There’s no elevator. Not that works at any rate,” Linc informed Michael.

“I figured as much. Where are the stairs?”

Linc led the way up them to the room. It was on the top floor, four stories up. He grabbed their stuff from where he’d set it near the door and walked further into the room. “Michael, there’s only one bed.”

Michael came and stared, then stared at the rest of the room. “Did you indicate we wanted the penthouse?” 

Linc shook his head. “No. But the guy seemed to recognize us and was awful clear about no damage or kidnapping.” He went over to check out the window in their room – a small, high one by which they could see out but no one could really see in – to see that there weren’t any roofs anyone could position a sniper in. He let the curtain down again and turned back to Michael. Michael seemed to be considering. 

“I call window side,” Linc sat down on the bed. 

Michael nodded and moved some things from his backpack to Linc’s bag. Then he took out a clock and set it. “I call first shower,” he said. Linc nodded and was asleep before Michael got done. 

\-- 

The following morning, Michael handed out their burner phones, and directed Linc to get dressed in a button down shirt and dress pants and to tuck in the shirt. “I feel like a business man,” he informed Michael after he was dressed.

“That’s the point. Put on the baseball hat as well.” Linc did. Michael threw on a sweatshirt and pulled up the hood. “Let’s go.”

Michael went to a bench across from the Jitters, a little coffee chain that seemed to exist only for a few states around Central City and Keystone, and sat down close to where the police office was. Linc nodded at it. Michael inclined his head and nodded at the convenience store entrance beside the main entrance of the lab where Dr. Elias worked. Linc gave the police station and the police cars another glance, and went into the convenience store with an entrance and view of the lab’s main entrance. The plan was Michael would get the key card from the pickpocket and then give it to Linc who was watching to see if Dr. Elias got into the building okay without the card.

Dr. Elias came out of the building and headed across the street for coffee. The pickpocket bumped into him on his way in and then spotted Michael and headed over. 

Michael held out a cigarette box for the kid. The kid took something shaped like a cigarette from it. Michael mimed lighting it. The kid pulled out something and mimed lighting their things shaped like cigarettes, passing Michael the keycard while he did. Michael nodded at him. The kid took his thing rolled like a cigarette and walked off down the street, trying not to grin. 

Michael took the card, slipped it into his pocket, and walking into the convenience store. He made it to the convenience store, before the kid unrolled the cigarette, took the payment in there and stared at the wrapping, biting his lip in growing worry and started back toward where he had seen Michael disappear. Michael bumped into Linc, handing him the card and started back out of the store to the doorway to the lab.

Something grabbed him, and there was a whoosh of air around him. He spun around to find out what and found himself looking at walls on the inside of a facility. It looked like a science lab. Not Dr. Elias’ by all the blueprints he had seen.

"What are you doing here, Snart? I thought laying low meant you were out of the city," said a man in a red spandex suit. 

"I think you've gotten me confused with someone else," Michael suggested. ‘Snart’ was what the man in spandex had called him. "You have me at a loss for who you are." He turned around looking for where he had been. This was certainly not it, not even close, and what’s more, this facility looked bigger than any of the buildings around them had been, so it wasn’t anywhere close by either. 

"You aren't fooling anyone," the man in the red spandex said. 

"How did-?" But then the answer came from news he had seen over the past few months before he was put in - the red blur, the few news reports that had hit Chicago had called him, Central City's own vigilante superhero. "You're the red blur that was in the Chicago news reports?"

That got the man to take a sideway step out of confusion. "What happened to your memory, Snart?"

That name again. "I'm sorry. I have no idea who-." 

"Cisco!" Michael looked around but didn't see anyone. Then he saw the red spandex blur tuck his chin down on the right, as if he was on a cellphone. "Something's wrong with Snart's memory. I'm putting him in the Pipeline."

"You're doing no such thing!" Michael started, but the man grabbed him again, and there was the same whooshing sensation. 

When things stopped moving at what must have been sonic speed, he saw that he was in a cell with glass panelling and about 7' x 7' of space with a shelf sized like a bed along one wall. The Blur in red spandex was standing outside, hands on his hips. Michael slammed his hands against the glass wall. It took it without making any noise. "You can't do this. Let me out. I’m not who you think I am."

"Who are you if you aren't Snart?" the blur said.

Michael frowned. This could be a tactic to get him to confess to breaking Linc out. "I can't tell you that, but I can reassure you that I'm not Snart."

Another man, Latino, stepped out. He looked like a nice kid, definitely a kid, graphic tee, jeans. "Listen, let me call my brother, and he can explain."

"You have a sister, Cold. Unless you're calling Heatwave your brother now."

"Heatwave?" Michael tipped his head, wracking his memory if he had heard of someone call Heatwave and someone called Snart.

"Mick Rory, buddy," the young man in the graphic tee said.

He nodded. The name meant nothing to him, but maybe he could use it to get out of here. “If you could bring him in, you would see that I am not this Snart person. Besides, I would know if I had a sister."

That caused a double take. "Are you saying you don't remember Lisa?"

Michael shook his head, repeating, "I think you've got the wrong guy."

“Don’t think so, Snart,” the Blur said. 

Michael frowned at them both. “Then, give me my phone call,” he said.

The guy in the graphic tee laughed. “That’s a good one. That was how you got out of Iron Heights last time. No phone call.”

Michael gaped at him. “What am I being held for? Do I at least get to hear the charges being brought against me?”

“Man, I can think of so many,” graphic tee guy said. Actually, studying what he could see of the Blur’s face, he was little older than a kid too, and had the same lips pursed with justice expression as the other one did.

The revelation did not sound good either. “So let me guess I’m not seeing a judge.”

They both shook their heads. This situation was going from bad to worse. 

“I’m going to see where your partner is,” the Blur announced and blurred out of existence, leaving Michael blinking after him.

“Okay then.” He turned to the guy in the graphic tee. “What’s your name?”

The guy looked both ways, uncertain. “It’s Cisco. But you already know that.” 

Michael nodded. “Well, Cisco, you seem nice, so let me tell you: there are charges awaiting you for what you are doing now. Entrapment is holding someone against their will. You will also probably be charged with impeding an ongoing investigation.” 

Cisco shook his head. “We’re working with the CCPD to deal with you guys.”

Michael closed his eyes. He did not want to give up this information, but it seemed necessary to get the guy to believe him. “Not the CCPD.”

Cisco sighed. “You committed a crime while across state lines?”

Michael gave slow sideways nod. “Let’s say I did.”

Cisco shook his head again. “Only you would have us clear your name and then go commit more crimes.”

Michael gave a small laugh. “What can I do to get you to believe I am not this Snart?”

Cisco smiled at him. “Absolutely nothing, Captain Cold. Enjoy your time in the Pipeline.” He reached up to tap the wall.

Michael was still laughing at the name when the cell he was in started moving. “Where are you taking me?” he shouted, but the cell stopped a few seconds later, in the middle of a curved, windowless hallway. He was being kept in solitary, without charges, without his brother knowing where he was and with no plan. Time to start making one.


	2. STAR Labs

Linc saw a flash of lightning and when he looked back at where Michael was standing, the spot was empty: his brother was gone. “What the fuck?” he said, looking around: no Michael. 

He spotted the kid running back and strode out to grab him. The kid didn’t flinch this time. Well, until he slammed him against the wall. “What the fuck was that?”

“You aren’t Heatwave, are you?” the kid said.

“No, man,” Linc said.

“Shit. And that wasn’t Snart?” The kid looked almost hopeful that he was wrong. 

“No. Who’s Snart?”

The kid held up a Fox River Eight Poster with – Michael had signed it? “You’re these guys?” The kid indicated their pictures.

Linc hoped the kid was not going to turn them in if he said yes, but at the moment, telling the truth was the best chance he had of finding out what had taken Michael. “Yeah. What are you going to do about it?”

“Uhh.” The kid seemed puzzled, but a second later a look of horror dawned on his face. “Oh god, I’m not gonna turn you guys in. What kind of snitch do you think I am?” 

Linc shoved his thumb into the kid’s shoulder. “Someone interested in not having a lot of jail time. Now tell me where my brother went.”

“That was the Flash.” He waved his hands the way the lightning thing had gone.

“The what?”

“Where have you been?”

“I’ve been in Fox River outside of Chicago for the last couple of years. Give me a break.”

The kid nodded and looked at the poster again. “Did you really kill the Vice President’s brother?”

“Would it impress you more if I did or didn’t?” Linc said.

The kid shrugged. 

“Yeah. Got it. So what’s the Flash and where is my brother?” 

“If the Flash got him, he’s safe.” The kid was starting to get on his nerves.

“That’s for me to decide, huh?”

“Okay. The Flash is the city’s superhero, real sweet, but kind of a little shit. He’s got super speed and takes down meta-humans, and… Do you even know what meta-humans are?”

Okay, superhero, like up in Gotham and Metropolis – Linc could deal with that. As to what meta-humans were… “How about you assume I don’t.”

“Well, ever since STAR Labs blew up – there was a particle accelerator that didn’t go off right – some people were hit by it and now got enhanced abilities, like this one guy can control weather, another was a literal human shark. They’re called meta-humans.”

Linc nodded. Particle accelerator that blew. He had heard something about that and dismissed it as a bit of trivia useful only for bar night, for like the next time Michael wanted to introduce him to his business colleagues and friends at those Chicago clubs where even a beer cost an arms and a leg. 

“The Flash gets any causing serious trouble around Central City. If they don’t, he doesn’t care.”

That sounded like a good superhero policy. However, that still didn’t explain why that meant he had taken Michael. “Okay, so why would he go after Michael?”

“Michael and you look a lot like our Snart and Rory, who are the thieves I thought you were last night.”

“And they’re meta-humans,” Linc concluded.

That conclusion got a momentary grin out of the kid. “No.”

Linc blinked at the kid. “You just said the Flash only goes after meta-humans.”

“No, I said he is the person who goes after the metas, not that he doesn’t go after anyone else. He goes after Snart and Rory, too. Primarily because the CCPD can’t catch them. And well, because they have a gun that generates cold and a gun that generates heat that they stole from STAR Labs tech. And they like fucking with the Flash. That makes them our local supervillains.” 

Linc took in that information and summarized, “So local superhero thinks we’re these supervillains. Captures my brother.” 

“Looks like it.”

Linc nodded. “Where’s he take them?”

“Well, typically to Iron Heights, when he catches them, that’s the local prison. But since Snart and Rory had their names cleared, the CCPD can’t bring him up for anything. They are free until one of them commits another crime that gets IDed as them.”

That sounded useful. He would have to tell Michael they had cleared someone’s name. Maybe they could get the Flash to help clear their names somehow, but that involved finding him – both the Flash and Michael. “So why’s he taken him if he’s free till another crime gets IDed as them?”

The kid nodded. “Doesn’t mean he doesn’t know what they’ve done. Also, you were in the middle of pulling a job. Flash probably wanted to make sure no one was iced or set on fire.”

“So where’s he taken my brother?”

“I don’t know. Probably the same place he takes all the meta-humans.”

“And that would be?” he prompted.

The kid shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

He considered beating the guy’s face in. “Is my brother safe?”

The kid nodded. “Yeah, particularly if he can convince the Flash that he isn’t Snart.”

Linc nodded. “He will.” Michael should have no problem convincing someone that he wasn’t someone else. He would be annoyed after he did if they didn’t have the item from Dr. Elias. But so much for that. “Okay. Then I’m going to need your help tracking down the Flash.”

\--

Michael had checked his pocket hoping that Cisco had left him the burner phone. No such luck. He checked around the entrance way to find it air tight, and had found the air holes under grating, but the walls and grating were molded out of a single metal. There was no toilet. There was no way in for food or water. Michael stood on the bench and sniffed the vent. It smelled like strong chemicals and his guess was that they hadn’t been used for cleaning. So they were either planning on letting him starve to death or gassing him to make him sleep while they delivered food and water. Good planning to keep somebody in. Unfortunately, bad for him.

He went to the glass side of it and kicked it a few times. It thudded, so probably some form of industrial plastic. Thick, too, by the sound of it. He wondered if anyone out there could hear. One way to check. “Hey! Is anybody out there?” he called out the door.

“What do you want?” responded a female voice over a speaker system. Hesitant but gentle. Given that she had access to the speaker system, he guessed that she was working there.

“Who is this?” he called. 

“Dr. Snow. But you already knew that.” So she assumed he was Snart as well.

“I don’t suppose I could convince you that I am not in fact Snart?” He figured it was worth a try.

“No, you can’t.” She paused and added, “When the speaker is on, you can speak at normal volume.”

He dropped his voice out of a shout and aimed where the speaker sounded like it was. “Good to know. In that case, could I find out when I will get water? Or to use the bathroom? There isn’t exactly a toilet in here.”

“As you won’t turn into gas or bees or teleport out of the cell, I could come give you water. You’ll have to agree to certain precautions. And not to kidnap anyone. Again.”

“I take it the person I’m supposed to be kidnapped someone in the past?”

“Me, Cisco, Barry,” the speaker responded. “The list goes on.”

He tipped his head. “Barry?”

The voice sounded alarmed when she spoke again. “Are you saying you don’t know who Barry is?”

“No.”

“This is why we think your memory has been tampered with. Have you met with any meta-humans over the past few days who may have tampered with it?”

Michael was missing a few pieces of information to understand what she was asking, but it might help answer why she had specified turning into gas and teleporting. “If you could tell me what meta-humans are, I might be better able to answer your question.”

“Are you saying you don’t remember what meta-humans are?”

“I have to say I don’t.”

“Umm. Would you mind if I ran a few tests on you to see how much memory you’ve lost? It might help us find the meta-human.”

That would be a no. “No MRIs. I had a bad experience with small, enclosed spaces when I was younger and with this room and this confusion, I don’t want to put my resolve to the test. However, if you want, I’ve heard good things about interviewing.”

“We will start with that.” Her voice seemed relieved by his suggestion.

“That’s fine, Dr. Snow,” he responded as though it was her suggestion and added, to get back to his original line of questioning, “Now, about the bathroom, how would I get there?” 

“Do you need to go?”

“I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t.” He did not need to, but the excuse worked well to at least see the process and inspect the room itself for potential ways out.

Her mind seemed to follow a similar line of logic, because she said, “There aren’t any ways out of there, Snart.”

Good to know the guy he was supposed to be had a thing for breaking out of prisons too. “Are you certain? I could check it over for you for structural integrity.” 

“Do you actually need water and the bathroom or are you just planning your escape?” she snapped.

“A little of both,” he confessed.

“Fine, I’ll come over there and give you water and bathroom. And you’ll see that there isn’t a way out. Then we’ll start the interview.”

The cell started moving and it pulled into the station where it originally was when he talked to Cisco. A glass shield slid into place about ten feet outside the cell – out of the same material as the door to his cell, he guessed. Outside that, there was a sweet looking doctor who looked a little like Sara – he felt his heart ache with what Sara Tancredi was going through because of him. 

“Pleased to have a face to connect with a voice,” he greeted her.

“If you think I’m going to fall for your charm routine, I’m not,” she said.

He held up his hands. “Just being polite.”

“Well, the bathroom is on your left.” She hit a button on the wall and the glass door to the cell opened. “There is also a water bottle in there.”

He nodded. “Thank you. It means a lot.”

He left the cell to check that the bathroom was in fact structurally sound, and out of a solid sheet of metal. Whoever had designed this place must have been planning on some very heavy firepower being stored in it. Maybe the answer lay in the word she had used earlier – meta-human. He took the water bottle and came back out. 

He gestured at the doctor with the water bottle and sat back down in his cell. “Now, you didn’t answer one of my questions earlier. What are meta-humans?”

She shook her head. “Do you remember the particle accelerator at all?”

A memory swam up in his mind of having watched the news with some colleagues and Veronica what seemed like half a lifetime ago about a particle accelerator being turned on and then going horrendously wrong. “Vaguely. I was in a bar in Chicago that night and we watched it. Why? What does that have to do with people turning into gas?”

“The anti-matter apparently struck people and gave them special abilities.”

He took that in. He’d read reports in what spare time he had over things that could potentially go wrong with a particle accelerator. There were a lot of protests over it at the time, and he had followed along with them, the op-ed articles, and the news in the days leading up to it. However, his interest had died when the thing had gone off, a number of people had died and none of the predictions had come to bear, seemingly. It now seemed the news was wrong. “And those are the meta-humans?”

“Yes.”

He thought about it, wondering what other abilities people had gotten. “The Flash is a meta-human too, correct?”

“In a way, yes.” He opened his mouth to ask what she meant by that, at which she snapped, “It’s a long story, and one I don’t care to go into with you.”

He inclined his head. “Point taken.” He paused, thinking about what else she had said, “Bees?”

“Someone was turned into a meta-human with the ability to turn themselves into bees.”

He thought about that. “But wouldn’t that…” He gestured at his mid-drift and then spread his hands. 

“Yes, I know. Don’t think about it too hard,” she said, but look a little more relax around him. 

“I see.” He nodded and broached the subject of the interview, “So you were going to interview me and see where my memories differed from your Snart?”

She looked at him. “Yes. Is it possible you came from another Earth?”

“What?” he asked at the utterly out of left field question.

She sighed and asked, “Was there something that looked like floating water that you went through to get here?”

“I would remember that.” He thought of the two questions back to back. “That would be a sign of coming from another Earth?”

“Yes.”

“As in extraterrestrial or multi-dimension?”

“Multi-dimension. How do you know about that?”

“My roommate in undergrad and our friends all had discussions about science fiction in our dorm room.”

“Our Snart didn’t go to college.”

“That’s because I am not Snart – whose first name I still do not know, by the way-.”

“Oh, it’s Leonard,” she informed him.

“Thank you. My name is Michael. I’m on a roadtrip with my brother. We swung into Central City for a few days.”

“Then why were you stealing something right across from the CCPD?” she pointed out.

“Because we needed to get something.”

“You meant you needed to steal something.”

He bowed his head, thinking over the many things that were now on his conscience following breaking Linc out. Stealing a thing was not nearly the worse of them. “Yes. I was. Given the circumstances and the fact that I meant to pay for it, I think I can be forgiven this once.”

She frowned at him. “Pay for it. Our Snart doesn’t pay for anything if he can help it.”

He sighed. “Let’s go back to beginning, can we? I am not Snart. Can I please get a phone so I can let my brother know I’m alright?”

\--

“Why are we here again?” the kid asked, glaring around at other library patrons, who kept glancing their direction with frowns of bemusement on their faces. 

Linc did not look up from the computer. “We’re trying to find out where the Flash took my brother.”

“And what does a library have to do with that?” the kid looked over his shoulder.

“I’m looking at a map. Listen, kid, you’re more annoying than several people I knew back in jail.”

The kid looked complimented.

“What is wrong with you?” he asked.

“Oh come on! At least let me think I’m like one of your prison buddies,” the kid whined. 

“Okay. That does it. Come here, you little twirp.” Linc grabbed for the kid.

And found a librarian standing over him. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Out of all the reactions he was expecting, that was not one of them. “Ma’am, I’m signed out on this computer for another half hour.” He indicated a list where he had put down the name of the supervillain he looked like. 

“This is a library. And I don’t trust you around books.”

Linc stared at her and gestured at the distance between himself and the book. “Why wouldn’t you trust me around books?”

The librarian seemed taken aback, which was actually hilarious on her face where she had an expression like she never took the staring-down-her-nose-at-someone expression off it. “Because you and your pyromaniac tendencies have made enough wreckage of this neighborhood without adding you to a place where people go to read and study.”

Pyromaniac – he raised an eyebrow at the kid – who had backed away from the librarian and was browsing a magazine rack. He would ask later; for now, he turned back to the librarian. “Come on. I’m not even in the same section as the books.”

“You are clearly here for a job, and I refuse to be an accomplice,” she said.

“You wouldn’t be an accomplice to anything.” He shrugged at her.

“Nonetheless, I must ask you to leave.”

He sighed, closed the internet window, and grabbed the map from the printer. “Okay. In the interest of not making a scene, I’m going.”

He grabbed the kid outside. “Pyromaniac?”

“Guy has a gun that shoots fire and had a favorite lighter and a blowtorch and is named Heatwave.”

Linc nodded. “Point. Think you could have mentioned it before the librarian thought I was going to light her books on fire?”

“Actually, that ain’t the problem with her.”

“What is?”

“I don’t know, man. She’s a classist bigot who got cut off from the mob when Snart and Rory chased the Santinis out. Take your pick.” 

Linc took that information in and stored it as potentially useful for later. “So where do we look now?”

“Snart knows,” the kid said.

“Yeah, but my brother isn’t-.” Linc stopped. That was always a possibility. Actually, come to think of it, he wasn’t sure why they hadn’t happened across their doppelgangers yet. Probably because they had only been in town for a day, and their doppelgangers hadn’t received news about them yet. “Where is he?”

The kid shrugged. “Nobody knows. He and Rory left town after they got their names cleared. I bet they’re in Vegas.”

Which was saying that they could be in unicorn land for all the kid knew. “That’s great, kid. Is there anyone else who might know?” 

“Snart’s got a sister.”

“Great.” Linc started reaching for the kid.

The kid backed away, holding up his hands. “Hey, I ain’t going anywhere near her, man. She threatened to take an ice skate to some guy’s head in Sinners last year, and she’s got a gold gun that she likes - read: uses a lot - and I don’t wanna end up as a gold brick.”

Linc let his hand fall. “You’ve got an interesting city, kid. Where can I find her?”

“She’s sometimes in the Sinners. Sometimes in the ice skating rink. Sometimes over at the Community College. I don’t know. If you’re looking for her, I’m gonna make myself scarce.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll check Sinners & Saints.” He let the kid run off and headed back to the bar.

Bartender looked up when he came in. “What can I do you for?”

He hoped he looked enough like this Rory guy that he could causally asked where Lisa Snart was, particularly if he had only just come back. “Hey, man. I’m wondering if you know where I can find Lisa.”

“She not in her apartment?” the bartender asked.

He would have answered no, but for all he knew, she could be there. “She still living at the place she was at when Snart and I left town?”

“Yeah, but if you want other new places she visits, she has taken to spending some time at STAR Labs. If you want to know.” The bartender gave him a significant look.

He had no idea what that meant. “Really? Why?” he asked for clarification, hoping that the question wouldn’t give him away.

“I don’t know. It might have to do with one of their scientists.”

STAR Labs, as in the place that the particle accelerator had been located at, as in the place that had created the meta-humans, as in the place that probably had something to do with the creation of the Flash, because he was betting that was a meta-human ability. “Huh. Can you call me a cab over there?”

\--

Michael woke up later that day, having gone to sleep after there was no progress in either convincing the doctor that he was not Snart or in getting a phone. The lights were off, which usually meant night. Although, come to think of it, there was really no way to tell if they only turned them off at night and he’d seen enough articles of how prison guards messed with people’s perception of time and reality.

The interview had gone predictably though disappointingly. Dr. Caitlin Snow had been butting heads with him to find out how his memories differed from Snart’s – which considering he didn’t want to give away any of who he was and get handed back to Fox River, had made her question him further when he had fallen silent – and he had kept insisting that he wasn’t Snart. He had gone to sleep when the interview was over. 

And now it was dark. In darkness, there are sometimes ideas. In this case, the idea was a name.

“Lisa,” he whispered. 

He sat up. It was the name of sister of the man he was mistaken for. If he aimed just right with his voice, it would reflect off the wall opposite him and back and forth until it made it hopefully to where the young man named Cisco who had very little regard for the law was. “Lisa!” he called down the hallway. “Lisa!” There it was: he could hear it echoing down the hall. “Lisa!” he put more panic into his voice.

There was the sound of a motor and a sensation of movement. “Lisa!” he yelled again, standing up as he was brought into the ground station. 

Cisco walked in, looking concerned. “Snart, everything okay?” He had played right. Now he just had to convince this man to bring Lisa to see him.

“Do I look like everything’s okay?” he asked. “Keep me here, fine. I probably deserve it in your eyes.” Cisco raised an eyebrow. He continued, “But I just want to see her to make sure she’s okay.”

Cisco frowned and seemed to be considering it. 

“That might be a good idea. It might help stimulate some of his missing memories,” said Dr. Snow from up the passageway.

“Please. Just let me let her know I’m alright.”

He watched Cisco’s face – a little frown, a little glance at his feet, a little guilty expression, and a little step back with a little nod: the man had decided to let this Lisa know where he was. “Okay, Snart. But only because she cares about you.” He walked up the corridor and pulled out his phone and hit a button a few times to flip through his contacts. So he had Snart’s sister’s number in his cellphone, which was interesting, to say the least. 

“Yeah? Listen, the Flash brought in your brother and he wants to see you.” He paused and then said, “Because he was pulling a job downtown.” He smiled at the phone. “I will. Thanks a million, Lisa.”

Cisco came back up the hall. “I’ve called her. She said to tell you that she won’t keep saving your ass. But she’s on her way.”

Fifteen minutes later, a young woman with brown curls, a leather jacket and heels strode into the corridor. Cisco smiled at her. Michael could see the crush from where he was sitting. A mutual crush flickered across her features as she spoke to him. Which explained why he had her number on speed dial. She stopped just inside his field of vision and spoke to Caitlin, dropping her eyes in an almost hurt manner and then shrugging as though it was meaningless to her.

Cisco gestured for her to follow him and lead her down the corridor to the cell Michael was waiting in.

He looked up and met her eyes as she peered in at him and smiled a greeting at her. She stopped halfway to the cell, alarm overtaking amusement. “He claims to be Lenny?”

Cisco frowned at her. “No, actually he... Are you saying he isn’t your brother?”

Lisa looked from one to the other and walked over to the cell where Michael was. “Who the hell are you?” she asked.

“I’m Michael,” he said.

“Lisa,” she nodded at him. “I would say pleased to meet you, except that you look enough like my brother that it’s scaring me.”

He inclined his head. “Point taken. I would endeavor not to look like your brother, but that might be a little difficult.” 

She tried not to laugh. “Alright. Point taken. Still.” She turned away. 

He nodded. “If anyone looked enough like my brother for there to be confusion in everyone in town, I’d be given them a wide berth, too.” 

She smiled at him. “You get it.” She turned away. “So, why were you calling for me? How did you find out about me?”

He inclined his head. “I needed someone to confirm I wasn’t your brother. Cisco and Caitlin both mentioned your name when they were putting me in this thing. Which really shouldn’t be allowed.”

She shook her head, glancing at Cisco. “No, it shouldn’t.”

Cisco shrugged. “Give me a break, okay. They hold someone who was literally getting revenge by turning into a poisonous gas. Find me another way to do that, and I’d be happy to listen.”

Michael tipped his head. “I’ll think on it. I do have a degree in structural engineering, as Caitlin’s notes will confirm. Have I sufficiently proved I’m not Snart?”

\--

“So let me get this straight. You’re not Snart.” The Flash – as it turned out he was called – stood with his hands on his hips, mask still up, staring at Michael, who was making a paper crane at the table in Cisco’s corner of the lab. Lisa sat across to him, still studying him with an expression of fascination on her face.

“No, my name is Michael.”

“As he’s been saying again and again in the interview to find out what happened to his memory,” Caitlin added.

“You were still in the middle of pulling of a theft downtown,” the Flash pointed out.

Michael sighed and glanced up at the Flash. “Yes, I was in the middle of taking an ID pass, so that I could make a chemical compound that can only be made at certain labs. His had the least security. I would go in at night, make the compound, and get out. No one would be threatened. The pass would be given to the front desk. Then, I could be on my way.” He finished folding the crane and handed it to Lisa.

The Flash scowled at him. “That’s still theft.”

Michael bowed his head. “Yes, and I will have that on my conscience.”

The Flash said, “I could arrest you and have you hauled over to Iron Heights.”

Michael nodded, “You could. However, from here, I could probably disable your security and free the other prisoners you have imprisoned in that tube of yours and then notify the DA that you have that in the first place. Or is keeping people in jail without trial or telling them what they are being arrested for typical in this city?”

The Flash looked taken aback. 

Lisa laughed. “Lenny said the same thing when he found out about the Pipeline.” 

Michael smiled at her then looked at the Flash, Cisco and Caitlin. “Cisco, Caitlin, as you seem more willing to hear me out, I need to borrow a phone to let my travelling companion know where I am and that I am alright.”

Cisco bit his lip. “Tell me he’s not a broad shouldered guy with a massive temper problem?”

Michael winced. There was the recognition. “If I say yes, will that give away who we are?”

Lisa shook her head. “Lenny’s partner in crime is named Mick and he matches that description.”

Caitlin said, “Snart’s partner is crime is a terror.”

Michael turned to stare at them. “It also matches my brother’s description.”

Now it was Lisa’s turn to stare at him, nose twitching. “Brother?”

Michael nodded. “Yes.”

“Lenny and Mick are not brothers,” Lisa said, closed her eyes, and shook her head before turning back to Michael with a smile.

Michael watched her. “I feel like I’ve amused you greatly.”

Lisa nodded. “Yes. And no, you’re not finding out how.”

“Fine. Now, could I get a phone to let him know I’m okay?” Michael asked again. “The phone you called Lisa on. Or Dr. Snow, your phone. Just to let my brother know I’m alright. He’s probably worried sick about me.” 

Michael’s question became a moot point as Linc stormed in, gun aimed at the Flash. “Alright. Hands up. On your knees. Now.” Cisco scrambled for his feet. The Flash spun around to stare at Linc. Caitlin put her hands on her head and got to her knees. 

“As I said,” she mouthed at Lisa.

Lisa started towards him and stopped, looking back at Michael. Linc looked from side to side, looking for someone. 

Michael sighed and stood. “Put the gun down, Linc. Everything’s fine. Just a case of mistaken identities.” 

Linc’s eyes snapped over to him. The Flash and Cisco turned to him as well. “Yeah, this guy Snart, who a supervillain. You know about that?”

Michael grinned. “Actually, no. That came as a surprise.”

Linc nodded and tucked the gun back away, walking over to embrace Michael. “I know. You alright?” 

Michael hugged back. “Yes. Are you?”

Caitlin stood back up. “So that isn’t Mick Rory?” she asked.

Linc turned to take in the Flash. “I saw pictures of you in a news article. Halloween come early or something?”

“Hey,” Cisco sounded offended. “I’ll have you know I designed that suit.”

Michael snorted. “This is Central City’s new superhero. Who mistook me for a supervillain. ”

Linc turned to the Flash, to Cisco, to Lisa and then back to Michael. “Just for the record, before you go getting any ideas, you would make a terrible supervillain.” 

Michael laughed. “No ideas in that regard.”

“So superhero.” Linc pointed at the Flash. “His Q.” He pointed at Cisco, getting a momentary grin from Cisco. “A doctor?” He pointed at Caitlin.

“Caitlin Snow. And I would appreciate it if you would put the gun away.” 

Linc nodded and did, then nodded at Lisa. “Who’s she?”

“The sister of the man I was mistaken for,” Michael answered. 

“Hi,” Linc stuck out his hand. 

Lisa shook it. “Lisa Snart. And you and Michael here do look like Lenny and Mick.”

Linc introduced himself. “Lincoln Burrows.”

Caitlin and Cisco both gaped. The Flash tipped his head in confusion. “That Michael.” Caitlin nodded at Michael.

“Oh. Well, that explains your answer when I asked if you had pulled an out of state crime,” Cisco said.

“Structural engineer,” Caitlin said.

“Out of state crime?” Barry asked, looked at the brothers again, and realization dawned across his features. “Wait. You’re the Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows who broke out of the Fox River Penitentiary. I’m sorry, but you’re dangerous murders. I’m going to have to bring you into the CCPD.”

“Hey I didn’t kill anybody!” Linc protested.

“He didn’t kill the Vice President’s brother,” Michael got the Flash’s attention. “He was set up. By someone who wanted that execution order to go through quickly and definitely and who killed anyone investigating it. We need to find out who had him framed. So that we can put the people who did it behind bars.” 

The Flash winced and shook his head. 

Lisa chuckled. “Uh oh. Now you’ve done it. You’ve mentioned righting the wrongs of the world in the presence of the Scarlet Speedster here.”

The Flash turned to her with expression that read, “Really?”

Linc looked from his brother to the expression the Flash had on his face. “He got himself arrested to save my life from the electric chair,” Linc added. “We just want to set the record straight and find out who did this.”

“Damnit. Why couldn’t you just have been normal criminals?” the Flash said. Lisa mimed a little violin with her finger and thumb, giving the brothers and Cisco an impressed nod. Caitlin narrowed his eyes at her.

“So you’re not going to turn us in?” Linc confirmed. 

“No.” The Flash shook his head. 

“Cisco, can they stay here for the night?” Lisa asked. 

“Yeah, that would probably be safest,” Cisco nodded.

“Why?” Caitlin asked.

“We have a hotel,” Michael insisted. “Over by the meatpacking district.”

Lisa laughed and shook her head. “Yeah no.”

Linc turned to her. “Why not?”

Lisa shot Linc and Michael a raised eyebrow. “Because my brother and his partner are maintaining a careful balance of power over there and I don’t want to know how many people mistook you for them already. If anyone from any of the Families comes up to you and you don’t know them, they could bring you in to meet with them.” 

Cisco asked, “They’re involved with the mob?”

“They forced the Santinis out of Central and declared their area mob-free under pain of ice and fire.”

“Oh,” Cisco said. 

The Flash looked impressed, though he was trying not to. “I don’t want the CCPD mistaking you for Leonard Snart and Mick Rory either.”

“Why don’t I drive Linc over to pick up any stuff you might have? You stay here with Cisco and Caitlin. You look more like Lenny than he does like Mick.”

Michael said, “How do I know you won’t turn him in?”

Lisa raised an eyebrow. “A. Why would I turn someone in who looks so much like Mick? B. As a general rule, I don’t turn people in. Curtesy of being Lenny’s sister. C. If you want reassurance, if I turn your brother in, you can start taking hostages here.”

“Hey! Lisa! That means me!” Cisco shouted.

“Shh. I just want them to know how much I’m not going to turn them in. You agree that staying here would be best?”

Michael inclined his head. Lisa and Linc left to go back to the hotel. 

“I need to get back to work,” the Flash said and blurred off to wherever it was he worked.

“Does that ever stop being weird?” Michael gestured in the direction the Flash had gone. 

“Eventually, yes,” said Caitlin. “Cisco, why don’t you show Michael where he’ll be staying.”

“Sure. They should be fine, by the way. No cops over that way now,” Cisco explained. “We have a few cots just in case one of us is working on a project that can’t be left alone for too many hours.”

Michael nodded. “Where is this Leonard Snart that you thought I was him, but his sister seems so unconcerned?”

“I have no idea,” Cisco said. “He hasn’t been in the city for the past couple of months. Ever since we cleared his file at the CCPD.”

“Why?”

“Long story.” Cisco stopped outside a room and turned to Michael. “Did you really break out of prison?”

“Fox River Penitentiary.” 

“You have to tell me how you did it.”

“I’m afraid I will have to take a raincheck on that until we’re free. We’re still wanted and some of the plan has yet to be enacted.”

“Makes sense. Here’s where the cots are.” Cisco indicated a door. “If you need anything, there’s an intercom on the wall. It rings all the offices. Oh, and if it’s something chemical you need, you know we can make it for you. We are STAR labs.”

Michael stared. “Thank you. I might take you up on that offer, after I discuss it with Linc.”


	3. Where Is Leonard Snart?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Torture occurs here. Light torture though?
> 
> Geographic notes: Starling City must be relatively close to Chicago, given the maps we see in the Flash at two points. And Chicago and Starling both exist in the same universe (Len's remark in Legends). So Starling is a little north of Chicago. Fox River Penitentiary is almost to Springfield, IL. Central is on the other side of Missouri than St. Louis is.

There was a section of I-55 where the highway stretched out for miles and miles, and all the eye can see are fields of corn with a single line of highway running through it. The afternoon sun made the newly spouting corn appear gold or like the scene described by “amber waves of grain.” 

Or so thought Len, gunning his motorcycle along the stretch of open road. 

It had been a while since he had done the trip. Typically, whenever he or Mick would leave Central, they would have to fear being picked up at every gas station and convenience store they stopped at. They ended up having to go in with guns out and threaten that they were robbing the place to even be able to use the restroom or get a candy bar. Len usually made sure the cashier was paid, typically by calling it into the supervillain helpline, which Gotham had apparently set up and then it had become a federal helpline as well, and which compensated people for damages done by supervillain, including theft. 

Now, that he had cleared their names, though, they could go into gas stations, fill up and pay, without getting the cops called on them. That was, if Mick wasn’t off getting a part for his gun to reach even hotter temperatures at the moment. Not that Len minded – at least Mick had taken his advice and learned how the gun worked and how to put it back together – but it did mean that Len had gone to do a couple easy jobs up near Chicago and Starling alone. He had been considering pulling a job in Chicago itself – there was a tour of a private art collection that was worth a lot of money – but then he heard about the prison break involving eight people that had happened at a state penitentiary near Chicago, and Chicago being crawling with cops was incentive for anyone to stay out of the city and the surrounding area if they were pulling anything. So easy jobs in cities further west in Illinois. 

Which was why he was surprised to round a corner and see a line of police cars up ahead. He slowed back down to the speed limit – no need to get pulled over for speeding of all things – and then to a stop by the officers’ cars.

“Is there a problem, officers?” he asked, not taking off his helmet. Best not to give them too close a glance at his face. Although, after a second, it seemed there was no avoiding it: the one officer – a man with a hard face - was staring close enough that he would be able to identify which pores Len had where. 

“Could I see your license?” said the officer.

And that was typically Len’s cue to ice them where they stood. However, it was also why he had drawn up a fake ID for both him and Mick. “Sure, officer.” He pulled it out and handed it over.

The officer – name of Peterson – looked down at the ID. “If you could get off your bike and wait here.”

Len considered reaching for his gun and reached up to mime taking off his helmet so he could reach down and grab it. Another officer – named Kellerman – stepped forward. “It’s just a precaution to make sure you aren’t who we’re looking for.” He gave Len a tight-lipped smile. If that was supposed to reassure him, it did not.

“And what if I am the guy you’re looking for?” Len nodded at the machine guns the officers behind him held. 

Kellerman put a hand on Len’s bike. “Well, we’ll have to bring you down to station to ask you a few questions. Those are precautions, just in case the people we’re looking for get violent.” 

Len could see Kellerman’s gun on the holster inside his suit – FBI grade, which meant whoever it was had crossed state lines - and his knuckles turning white in his grip on Len’s bike. The point was clear: there wasn’t any way Len was getting out of there on the motorcycle. “Alright, officers.” He gave Kellerman a smile and climbed off his bike, reaching for the bag with his gun in it. 

“Why don’t you leave that there?” Kellerman said, putting a hand on Len’s abdomen.

Len met his eyes and found the eyes of the person he was staring into made his knee-jerk instinct to run fire off like an alarm bell in his head. “I will call in a police brutality warning if you don’t get off me now.”

Kellerman removed his hand, but not the expression in his eyes. 

Len turned to Peterson, who was clearly the local officer. “So am I the guy you’re looking for?”

“If you could take off your helmet,” Peterson said.

Len sighed and took off his helmet. There weren’t any charges against his name now – he had checked and double checked – but that didn’t mean that the cops weren’t still suspicious. 

“If you could get in the car, we’d like to bring you down to the station for questioning.”

“I’d rather not, if it’s all the same to you, officer,” he said.

“Get in the car. Don’t make us make this official,” Kellerman said.

Len met Kellerman’s eyes again and threw back some of his own, the soulless expression he reserved for jobs with his father or when someone screwed up one of his jobs particularly gloriously. Kellerman just smiled at him. “Detective Peterson. I’ll let you do the honors.” He held out his hand for handcuffs in front of him, hoping that Central’s rule of whoever cuffed him got to bring him in worked up here.

“Why don’t you let me take him,” Kellerman interrupted and cuffed him himself, checking the cuffs to make sure they were fastened. He pushed Len toward his car.

“I think it’s protocol that the local police get to take people into their station?” Len said to Kellerman.

Kellerman put a hand on the back on Len’s elbow. “Get in the car. I need to ask you some questions about your brother.”

Len stared in confusion. “Brother? I don’t have a brother.”

Kellerman shoved him into the car. “You really think anyone’s believing that, Scofield?”

“Who the hell is Scofield?” Len asked, then remembered that one of the escapees from the state penitentiary up near Chicago had been named Scofield, Michael Scofield, and had a brother who was on death row who escaped with him. “Wait. I’m not him. I live in Central City, in Missouri. Didn’t this Scofield guy live in Chicago?”

“I think we both know you’re lying, Scofield,” Kellerman leaned down to whisper into his ear. “So why don’t you make it easier on yourself and don’t struggle or things might have to get nastier than a structural engineer from Loyola University is used to.”

Len studied Kellerman’s face and knew that Kellerman planned to turn off any recording devices and be a very bad FBI cop. He returned to Kellerman’s questioning, he hoped loud enough for the state trooper to hear and check. “My name is David Brown and I work as an IT guy down in Central. I didn’t go to college. I can tell you about my job if you want. Talk your ear off about the details of how some of my clients get me on the phone just to tell them, ‘is it on?’”

Kellerman slammed the door shut. Len glanced at Peterson. Kellerman nodded at him, and Peterson nodded back. Damn cops. 

Any attempt to convince Kellerman that he was not Scofield was met with silence, though occasionally the fed would say, “Are you ready to tell me where you brother is?” and other things like that.

He pulled off the highway a little up the way and then into a motel a little way up the road the ramp let out onto. “Where are we?” Len asked.

Kellerman turned off the car and got out. Alarm bells went off in Len’s mind. He knew this part well. Though typically taking someone to a secret motel to get information out of them was not something he would typically associate with the law – mobs and their corporate fronts, yes - but in Len’s experience the law liked people in the station first, and then turned off the monitoring devices. This meant one of three things – either the FBI did not want any cops to hear what he could potentially say, this Kellerman guy was not just FBI, or Len was getting brutalized a whole lot worse than the state cops would be comfortable with. So he held up his hands for the dirty FBI guy to indicate that he knew what was what. 

Kellerman shoved him forward towards one of the rooms. “I think we both know where this is headed. You want to tell me where your brother is now?”

Len turned back to him, tapping a hand against his chest. “You know, even if I was this guy, Scofield,” he tapped him again, “I really don’t think I’d tell you.” Third time, he reached into the man’s jacket pocket and pulled a thin bill fold out. Kellerman did not glance down as Len shoved it up his sleeve.

“That really is unfortunate.” Kellerman spun him back around and pushed him towards the door while holding onto the handcuffs. Len shrugged as Kellerman opened the door. “Now get in.”

Kellerman fastened him to a chair with zip ties and duct tape. 

As Len was reaching for his pocket knife in his sleeve pocket, Kellerman punched him across the face. 

The punch struck true, and it left Len shaking his head. “Typically one asks a question first.”

Kellerman pulled up a chair in front of him. “I already have, and besides, that was to let you know where we stand.”

Len turned back to Kellerman. “I am not Michael Scofield.”

“See, that’s what I was trying to avoid with the initial hit there.”

Len shook his head. “Let me ask you a question. Why do you think I’m him?”

“Because you look exactly like him, and I’ll bet if I took your fingerprints, they would be on file as his.” 

That was actually a good idea. It might reveal who he was, but at least his name was cleared and he would not be tortured instead of somebody else. “Please do. And I have no idea why I look exactly like him. Maybe my dad slept around.”

“That is possible. We have no idea where your father is, but given that he walked out on you while your mother was still pregnant with you, anything is possible.”

“My father is alive and well and rotting in jail, but thanks for the memory.”

Kellerman gave a shrug. Len realized that that was supposed to get a rise out of him. 

“Then there’s always your mother. Tell me about her. You were how old when she died?”

Len sighed. “She didn’t. She left my father, probably when the abuse got too much. I don’t know anything about her, other than she was young; she was pretty; and I have her eyes.” All things Lewis had told him amid beatings. 

Kellerman grimaced. “She died when you were eleven and your brother was fifteen.”

Len wondered how many times he could repeat the same thing before sounding like a broken record. “I do not have a brother.”

A cellphone rang. Kellerman turned to the counter where he had left his cellphone. The cellphone rang again. 

“I have to get that.” He got up and picked up the cellphone, flipping it open.

“Really?” Len asked, but that provided him the moment to slip his pocket knife into his hand and start on the zip ties.

“Yes?” said Kellerman into the phone. “Well hello, Agent Mahone. No. I actually have him right here. Tell you what, if you want me to wait for you to find out where the brother is, I will, but he might get further away.” He hung up.

“Disagreements in the department?” Len commented.

Kellerman dialed a number into the phone. “Yes, this is Kellerman. Who is this? Well, Mr. Kim, tell the President that I have the younger brother, and that I am handling it. You can stop having Mahone interfere. Yes, I understand.”

“The President?” Len asked.

“It’s none of your business,” Kellerman told him.

Len let that rotate through his mind and hit on the knowledge that the Burrows guy had killed the Vice President, now President’s, brother. “Holy shit. The President?” 

He looked surprised enough that Kellerman turned to stare. Len kept on it, because that was the first second of doubt he had gotten. “So the Secret Service is hunting down these guys?”

“Yeah, shut up.”

“I thought you said you wanted me to talk a few minutes ago,” Len pointed out. 

“You already said you don’t know where he is.”

“If I was them, I’d probably have called in a few contacts and disappeared into the underground, lots of people who can’t be called up, lots of secret meetings that nobody has any idea happened, mob connections. That Abruzzi guy they escaped with.” 

“We have people looking into that.” Kellerman sat down across from him again. “If you aren’t Scofield, who are you?”

Len decided to give his name. “My name is Leonard Snart.”

Kellerman scoffed. “That’s a different name than the name you gave earlier.”

Len nodded. “This one’s really mine.”

Kellerman narrowed his eyes. “How do you look so much like Scofield?”

Len shook his head. “I have no idea.”

Kellerman shrugged. “You don’t seem to know much of anything, do you?”

Len shook his head. “About this case, no. About staying off the radar as these guys now have to do, maybe.” He held up his hands, having worked them out of the zip ties.

Kellerman took a look at his hands and gave a shrug and then grabbed him by the shirt, dragging him into the bathroom. 

“What the hell? What are you doing?” he said as Kellerman threw him to the floor and turned on the bathtub.

Kellerman turned back to him as he was getting to his feet. “The thing is, I don’t believe you. You know where they are. And I’m going to find out.”

“I swear I don’t,” Len said, almost on his feet.

Kellerman grabbed him again and shoved him headfirst into the water. Len tried to fight, but Kellerman twisted his arms behind his back – he felt something dislocate in his shoulder and the sickening ache of the injury washed over him – and push his neck so he fell face first into the water. Then he let Len up. 

“Ready to talk?” he said while Len was gasping for breath. 

“I’m telling you, I have no idea where they are,” Len repeated.

Kellerman gave another shrug and left the room. Len coughed and got to his feet. By the time he was standing, Kellerman reentered with duct tape and a chair and kicked his legs out from under him. Len heard a crunch that shot to head with a sickening sensation. “That is too bad, because I can keep going all day.”

\--

“So your name is Lisa?” Linc said once they were in Lisa’s car.

“Mmm hmm. And yours is Lincoln.”

“Linc is fine.”

She gave a sideways nod but glanced out of the side of her eyes at him. He noticed and frowned. “Huh. My ex-wife is named Lisa.”

“Was that supposed to be a pick up line?” She gave him the once over with her eyes.

“What? No. Not that you’re unattractive. But I was schedule to be executed a couple days ago. And she died recently.”

“So you’re not in a place where you should be dating?” she concluded.

He laughed. “Yeah. Basically.”

“I wouldn’t date you anyway. While you don’t look as much like Mick as Michael does Len, they both more or less raised me. I think of Mick more or less as a brother.”

“Yeah. I can see how that could be awkward. But I wasn’t asking.”

“Good.”

They spent the rest of the car ride in silence, until she pulled around a corner to a street he recognized as the one he had driven up to the hotel. Sinners & Saints was on the left. “You said you were near here, right?”

“Yeah. That hotel.” He pointed. 

She looked and laughed. “Out of curiosity, he give you the penthouse?”

“Yeah. Why?” 

She shrugged. “My brother and Mick go into there when they’re drunk as skunks after celebrating a job at Sinners & Saints.”

He nodded. “Uh huh. There’s only one bed? Are they sl-?”

“They don’t notice. Now out.”

He slid out of the car.

“Do you have a car to get back or can I pick you up in an hour?” she asked. 

“Yeah. I got a car.”

“Good, then I’m going home. Stay out of trouble. If anyone who looks suspicious comes your way -.”

He chuckled. “I’m afraid you have to be more specific. We’ve encountered a lot of suspicious people.”

She rolled her eyes. “If you encounter anyone who calls you Mick or Heatwave or your brother Leonard or Snart or Cold or Captain Cold, just tell them to back off, that you aren’t interested in talking to them now and ask them if they’d like to be lit on fire.” 

He gave a slow nod. “Got it.”

He went into the hotel to grab their stuff as the car drove away.

\--

Michael looked up from where he was sitting, clean, dry and in a STAR Labs shirt that Cisco had given him – apparently they had a lot left over – when Linc walked back into the lab an hour later. Three things happened at once.

One, Cisco looked up from the computer, where he was showing Michael their security layout, as Michael had commented that it seemed a little weak (It was more than a little: Michael felt the need to design something better so they didn’t have supervillains walking in or watching them for month unbeknownst to them again). “Buddy. Listen,” he said to the man.

Two, the man said to Cisco, “Alright, kid. Where my partner?” in a voice that was much lower and smoother than Linc had, and aimed what looked like a cross between a flamethrower and a super soaker at him.

Three, Michael looked up and said, “Linc, what took you so long? Is everything okay?” 

Michael realized halfway through his statement that this man was not Linc: on top of his voice being too low, his nose was too broad and looked like it had been broken; he carried himself differently, further back on his feet; and he looked heavier. Plus, he was wearing what looked like fireman pants and red suspenders and goggles, which Linc would never be caught dead in. 

The man turned to look at Michael. “Ahh, there you are, Snart.” He started towards him. “Lisa texted. Why the change in meet up places?” 

Then he stopped, eyes darting over Michael with an increasing frown of alarm. “What the hell is this? Who the hell are you, ‘cause you ain’t Snart?” He aimed the firethrower at Michael.

Michael held up his hands and shook his head. “I’m not Snart, but it’s easy to see how the confusion occurred, if I look as much like your Snart as you look like my Linc. I must say, I thought you were Linc when you first came in.”

“I blame the Flash for this,” the man said to Cisco.

“Well, he did confuse me for Snart and try to put me in his secret prison without charges.”

“After all that effort on Snart’s part not to have people rotting in here?” The man shrugged at Cisco.

“He just did that so they would owe him a favor,” Cisco replied to him.

“Fairly big favor on not being dead or stuck in a secret offshore prison of the Green Arrow’s persuasion,” the man said.

Cisco shook his head. “Heatwave, you know I meant he didn’t do it out of any altruism.” 

“Yeah. What of it? They haven’t bothered Central City since then, have they?” 

Cisco shrugged. “No.”

“I heard him and a young man from Sinners & Saints we were working with call you Heatwave earlier. Why?” Michael asked.

“Name is Mick, but Snart got us these guns.” He held up the flamethrower. 

“Yeah. By robbing STAR Labs!” Cisco protested.

Mick gave Cisco a little eyebrow raise and laugh. Cisco scowled. Mick turned back to Michael. “Mine generates a heat field and lights things on fire. I’m also a bit of a pyro and an arsonist, and I have burns covering half my body from getting too close to the flame.”

“Medically?” Michael asked.

Mick tipped his head. “What’s that?”

“Do you just like flame or start itching for starting them?” Michael gave a more detailed version of his question.

Mick narrowed his eyes. “What’s it to you, Pretty?”

Michael closed his eyes and winced, then shook his head with a laugh. 

Mick watched. “What’s wrong?”

“Given how much you look like Linc, it is odd to be called a nickname I was last called by someone who… should have remained in prison for the rest of his life.”

Mick studied him then nodded. “Some people definitely should.” 

“Like… the person who killed the President’s brother? Which you still haven’t proved Linc didn’t do.”

Michael gave Cisco a look that made Mick laughed. Michael turned to him, eyebrow raised. 

“You looked enough like Snart giving someone a withering look that I could tell exactly what was going through your mind.”

Michael nodded and turned back to Cisco. “Well, that’s the problem, you see. He went into the garage where he was supposed to have shot Steadman, the Vice President’s brother. But Steadman was already dead, or someone who looked like him. He might still be alive. Then they killed all the witnesses, quote-on-quote lost some of the evidence, and created a tape. So he lost all the appeals. Then they’ve been trying to kill him ever since and anyone connected to the case. So we’re having difficulty proving anything.”

“Who’s they?” Mick asked.

“I don’t know, and that’s what worries me,” Michael said.

Cisco frowned. “And you aren’t just crazy? They are actually out to get you?”

Michael nodded. “Unfortunately yes. They killed Linc’s ex. They killed a childhood friend of ours, while Linc was on the phone with her.”

Mick gaped. “So this is a conspiracy, is what you’re saying.” 

Michael nodded. “Yes.”

Mick chewed on his lip. “Is there a reason why Linc?”

“If there is, we don’t know it yet.”

Mick gave a nod. “If you have anything you need lit on fire or stolen while you find out, I can do that.”

Michael smiled at him. “Thanks.”

“So you break Linc out of prison.” Michael inclined his head. “Blueprints?”

Michael smiled. “Yes. In my tattoo.”

Cisco asked. “You have a tattoo?”

Michael gave a full smile this time that shown with smug pride. Mick grinned at the expression. “This should be interesting. Mind if I have a look?”

Michael studied him, face becoming unreadable. Mick knew the expression. 

“I’m not going to try screwing with your plans. Even if I did, I wouldn’t know where to start. Snart’s the planner. I’m just his muscle on our jobs.”

“Somehow, I doubt that,” Michael said then glanced at Cisco. “If neither of you will tell…” He slipped off the shirt to reveal the tattoo.

Mick’s eyes brightened. “Nice. A full shirt. I like it.” He gave an impressed nod.

Cisco too was gazing at the complexity of the tattoo. “Catholic imagery.”

“Larger tattoos tend to include religious imagery. I don’t remember if my father was Catholic. My mother wasn’t very religious. One of my foster families was Catholic though and I always liked the imagery.”

Cisco and Mick nodded. His phone rang. “I need to take this. Hang on.” He flipped open the phone, walking out of the room.

Once Cisco was out of the room, Mick held up Michael’s arm and pointed at a tattoo section saying “11121147 Allen Schweitzer.” “What’s this?”

Michael nodded. “This was part of it. Model type of a prison toilet. Allen head wrench for the toilet. 11121147, the model number of a screw that was nearest the size of the Allen head wrench.” 

Mick laughed, grabbed his other wrist and pointed at another tattoo saying “Cute Poison.” 

“This is another part of it. A chemical formula for extremely corrosive stuff. Burns through metal.”

Mick beamed at him in admiration. Michael saw the grin and ducked him head. Mick seemed taken aback and shook his head, sitting back. “Snart tends to plan the jobs in his head, but I like it.”

“I tried that. There was too much information there and it had to be kept for far too long.”

“What’ll you do if you pull another job though?” Mick said.

“This one should hopefully be the only one I have to pull,” Michael said.

Cisco walked back in. “Guys. Uh. Linc was caught by the metahuman task force at the CCPD.”

Michael’s face displayed a moment of anguish. Mick moved to him protectively before frowning in the same bemusement that had earlier struck his face. “I need to get him out. Where are they keeping him? Are there blueprints to it that I could get?” 

Mick nodded. “I can give you a layout down to the foot. And back passageways.”

Cisco put a hand up for Michael to stop. “Hold it right there, Scofield. Before you go all ‘we have to break him out.’ I’m gonna call the Flash who knows people in the CCPD and that task force and see if I can get him released.”

Michael shook his head. “If he gets processed, that would be bad for us and will notify the FBI and the Illinois police where we are, which would mean that Linc’s back on death row.”

Mick turned to Michael. “We could always go in there with my heat gun blazing and threaten the pigs until they return him to us.”

Cisco returned, “Or we can not do that.”

Mick shrugged. “Worth a shot.”

Michael glanced at him, sighing. “That was Linc’s suggestion for how to get his son out when they had him. Bum-rushing a prison is not be the best way to get someone out. A lot of people get hurt. But give me your information, and I will get him out of there.”

Cisco turned to Michael. “The Flash could always just bring him back here.”

Michael considered it. “Wouldn’t that involve some explanation as to why he help him escape?”

“He could always say he’s working with you,” he gestured at Mick, “to bring down a metahuman and doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

Mick raised an eyebrow. “Go on.” 

Cisco shrugged. “That would allow him to walk out with you.”

Michael nodded. “And will he do it?”

“The reason for Cisco’s grin is that that would give Central the idea that I am working with Red and the pigs as a reformed criminal consultant,” Mick explained. “Red’d love that.”

 

A half hour later, the Flash zoomed in with Linc, a duffel bag and a backpack in tow, and a pissed off expression on his face. When he saw where he was, he turned on Cisco. “I thought you said there weren’t any cops in that area.”

Cisco returned. “There weren’t!”

The Flash said, “It was Patty, who was there undercover.” 

Linc put down the pack and turned towards Michael. “You okay?” He hugged him.

“I was getting ready to break you out again.”

Linc laughed. “Plans and everything?”

“Mick’s been in before too, and in that prison. It’s easy to see how you were confused for him.”

Linc turned to Mick, who was staring at him. “Huh. You’re right. He does look like me. A lot like me.” Mick nodded, staring at Linc and blinking.

The Flash said, “That was why they were willing to buy that you’d be working as a consultant on the metahuman task force.”

“It’s odd going down the street, being spotted and having people think you someone other guy,” Linc said.

Mick raised an eyebrow. “Well , we’re famous around here.” He turned to the Flash. “Red, why were they willing to buy that I’d ever help you with the metas?”

The Flash blushed a shade similar to his suit. “Umm.”

Linc explained, “He said he’d done you a favor in the past and you owed him one. And that you didn’t like metas messing with your city anymore than the police force.”

Mick narrowed his eyes. “Just for that, I’m gonna burn the CCPD to the ground.”

The Flash grinned the grin of the cat that got the cream at him. “Oh no. You wouldn’t. You see, I said if you did anything, I’d put you right back in.”

Mick gaped. “Screw that. I’m gonna light you on fire.” He unhooked his heat gun again. 

Lisa said from the doorway, where she had been watching them, “Who are we lighting on fire, Mick?”

“Red here signed me up as a consultant with the cops meta human task force to do hero business.”

“Well, we could do with getting some of them off our back and they do make stealing things a lot more difficult when they screw up Central City, but if you don’t want to, don’t.”

Linc stepped over to Lisa. “I’m responsible for that. Your Flash had to get me out of custody somehow.”

Lisa turned to the Flash. “And that was the way you did that?”

Cisco said, “Sorry. Michael and I came up with the way to get you out of there.”

Mick shook his head. “I don’t object to the consultant with the metahumans department. I find that hilarious. I object to the hero business. I’m no hero. I don’t care about anyone, and I’m going to keep it that way.” 

Linc looked at Michael, who looked back and ducked his head. Then he turned to Mick, again blinking at him. Mick nodded at his expression. “It’s weird looking at you. I keep thinking I’m looking in a mirror then you move in a way I didn’t,” Linc said.

“Same,” Mick said. “Except you hold yourself different and you didn’t break your nose and get burned.”

Linc nodded. “Still, I owe you one, man. Maybe since I look so much like you and since it was me the Flash was getting out, I can go investigate these metahumans with him until we leave? What do you think, Michael?”

Michael had been watching Linc and Mick talk. “I think that would work. At least until we have to move on. I’ll be working on the structural engineering of this place in exchange for Cisco providing us what we need.”

Linc turned to him. Michael inclined his head. Linc nodded. “So where are we staying?”

“Let me show you.” 

Linc picked up the duffel, Michael the backpack, and left the room.

Mick walked over to Lisa. “Why’d you text us?”

“So I could explain.” Lisa gestured after Michael and Linc. 

Mick nodded. “Yeah. Best to see in person. And you did text both of us, right?” 

Lisa nodded then walked over to Cisco. “I take it Lenny’s not here yet?” she asked.

“No, why?” he asked.

Mick walked over as well. “Because she texted us to meet up here, that’s why.”

Cisco turned to her. “Why?”

Lisa turned to both of them with her lips tight. “There were actually multiple reasons why I called you back to Central City, and if Lenny’s not here yet, that’s what I was worried about.”

“What?” Cisco asked.

Lisa pulled out her phone and typed in a number. The phone rang, and kept ringing. Lisa hung up when it switched over to voice mail. “He was city hopping in Illinois.”

Cisco gaped as he got it. Mick frowned. 

“We brought Michael in thinking he was Snart. Both of you thought so, too.”

“But he sounds nothing like Pretty in the other room, and he’s got a fake ID and everything,” Mick said.

Lisa turned to him. “Mick, have you been following the news at all?”

Mick gave a shrug. “When I was in my car, I would turn on the news.”

“With the things Michael did to get everyone out of that prison and with the fake ID he has now, and the announcement by the FBI, I don’t think the Illinois police are going to believe a fake ID.”

Mick sat. “So he’s been arrested. We’ll break him out of the van same as you did before.”

Cisco nodded. “I can find out where they’re holding him. We’re tuned into the CCPD police radio and can tune into the radio, and the news, I bet they’re saying they have him all over the news.”

They turned on the tv. The Flash looked up from across the room. “What is this?”

“My partner likely wound up being arrested as Pretty down the hall,” Mick explained.

“How are you sure?”

“I call him and the phone just kept ringing,” Lisa added.

“Listen to this,” Cisco said, turning up the volume.

“News sources say that Michael Scofield may have been taken into custody earlier today on Route I-55 near Springfield. However, he never arrived at the police station for questioning. Officer, is it possible that he pulled another escape? Where are the officers in whose car he was driven to your station?”

“Anything’s possible. We have been working with the FBI on the Fox River Eight and one of them started taking him to the station. However he never got there.”

Lisa’s face went ashen. Mick’s wasn’t much better. “We need to find him.”

“I can call Felicity,” the Flash said.

“I think that would be best.” Cisco nodded.

“I’m going to go talk to Michael and Linc,” Lisa said. “See if they know anything about who this FBI agent is.”

Mick and Cisco looked at each other. “You nickname people for the Flash, right?” 

“Yeah, but they aren’t supervillains or metas.”

\--

“Hey Felicity,” Barry said when she picked up.

“Barry!” came the response.

“How are things going in Starling City?”

“Okay. Oliver’s trying to tell the FBI and the police that he’s only interested in supervillains in Starling, but they want him to track down these escapees from that prison just west of Chicago. And Chicago’s crawling with police, and some of them are up in our city, thinking they might have come this way. And Queen Consolidated is doing strange things that I’m trying to track, but what else is new from the company that tried to destroy the Glades?” 

Barry paused, taking all of the information in. “I keep forgetting how messed up Queen Consolidated is.”

Felicity agreed with him, “Oh, it used to be more so. So how’ve you been? Any problems with the fast speed?”

“Actually, we might have a problem we need your help with.”

“Ooh. Something that needs my attention. Does it need hacking?”

“Yes. You know Captain Cold?”

“Yes. The very attractive supervillain who kidnapped Cisco and Caitlin on separate occasions?”

Barry stared at his phone. “Why do you find my supervillain attractive?”

“Well, he is,” Felicity said. 

Barry was relegating that to “things he was never thinking about again.” He continued, “He looks a lot like one of the Fox River escapees and we’re worried he’s been captured.”

“So you want him back? To being your supervillain?”

“Yes. His sister and Heatwave are worried about him.”

“And have come asking for a favor?”

That wasn’t what had happened, but that was the best way he could put it without also getting into how two of the Fox River Eight were now in STAR Labs. “Yes.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks, Felicity. You’re the best.”

\--

Lisa stuck her head in. Michael and Linc looked up from the cots.

“Lisa, what is it?” Linc said.

“Lenny’s been captured. We’re wondering if you know anything about the FBI guy who was after you.”

“Alex Mahone.” Michael nodded. “He was the one who figured out the plan in regards to LJ.”

Linc nodded. “He’s also the guy who almost caught us with the car.”

Michael asked, “You think he’s been captured as me?”

Lisa nodded. “He has. The news channel says he was stopped by Springfield but was put into an FBI car and never made it to the station.”

Michael’s face went pale. "And he looks like me?" 

"Michael,” Linc said, “What are you planning?”

"He looks like me, correct?" 

Lisa nodded. "Yes, enough that I wasn't able to tell until you moved, and even some of your harder movements look like him."

He got up from the cot. Linc got up from his as well. “Let me see the news report.”

They followed her out to the central area of STAR Labs. The Flash walked in as well. “Good news. Felicity’s on it. She also says that Oliver is being asked to track you guys, but that he hasn’t agreed.”

“So it’s being handled?”

“If anybody could find him, Oliver can.”

“Who’s Oliver?”

“Oh! Uhh…” the Flash said. “That’s the name of the vigilante up in Starling.”

“The Arrow?” Mick frowned. Cisco nodded.

“Oliver?” Michael’s brow creased.

“Let us see this news report,” Linc said.

Mahone was being interviewed by the reporter. “We have found Scofield once. We will find him again, and we will find Burrows.”

“That’s the guy who interrupted us when we were trying to get LJ,” Linc confirmed.

“Again, anyone with news about where the brothers are is to call us immediately.”

Mick turned to stare at Linc and Michael, “Wait. Brothers?”


	4. Safety in Central City

After a discussion with Linc where he told Linc to get some sleep, Michael sat observing the search Cisco was doing with someone named Felicity Smoak up in Starling, something involving pinging cell phone towers and looking at maps. From the looks of it and comments that Felicity and Cisco were making, Michael did not think civilians ordinarily had nor should have access to those maps. Mick and Lisa were watching from the other side of Cisco, Mick’s expression intense as he watched what they were doing, Lisa agitated and going to pace the room, standing over Cisco again, and then pacing the room again. Cisco grabbed her hand after one of these and said, “We’ll find him.” She nodded and indicated to Mick that she wanted to sit. He got up; she sat down in his seat, and he brought over another chair.

At one point, Cisco asked for a coffee. The Flash offered Mick one as well, which he assented to with a grunt. Lisa said, “Hot chocolate for me.” 

When he turned to Michael, Michael gave a more polite, “If you could, that would be great,” while watching Lisa and Mick’s interaction. The Flash blurred out of the room. 

He came back with the coffee less than two minutes later and deposited the coffees into their hands.

“There’s a coffee named after you?” Michael stared at what his drink was called.

The Flash nodded. “Yeah. It took a little getting used to. But given that I’m the local superhero…” 

Mick interrupted him, “Of course Jitters would have a drink called The Flash. But why do they have a drink named Heatwave?” 

Cisco turned to grab the drink from Mick, to which Mick responded, “Hey! Mine!”

Cisco batted his hands away. “Why is there even a drink named after you?”

The Flash answered, “It’s got cinnamon and other spices and tastes smoky.” 

Mick grabbed the coffee back, shrugged, and tried the drink. “Huh,” was the only observation he made.

“Me and Lenny might have had something to do with that. Mine’s called the Captain Cold, and it’s a hot chocolate with mint marshmallows.” 

Michael laughed. “Is there a story behind that?”

“Oh, we went in there and flirted until they gave us a taste of each of the drinks. They have a very cute barista.” 

“Should I be worried?” Mick joked.

“Not Lenny’s type. And even if she was, how long have you two been the most important thing in each other’s life - other than me, of course?”

Mick nodded. “Yeah, speaking of which, what’s taking so long, inventor kid?”  
“Oh, only the fact that they want to keep their location secret,” Felicity said over the speaker. “Not the normal cars, those we were able to find in a second. But it appears someone has already tried to scramble any signal.”

“Or that the car itself has a scrambler in it. Felicity, have you tried tracking the dead zone?”

“Ooh. You mean like this?” The computer screen moved off the road and onto a different route. “That exit there?”

The computer pulled up something. “I agree, that seems to be the one we’re looking at,” Cisco said to Felicity.

Mick nodded. “Exit on the right, right passed where they did the stop, I take it?”

Cisco nodded. “Got it in one.”

Felicity said, “The signal seems to stop there.”

Mick nodded. “What’s that building there?”

Cisco said, “Looks like a crappy motel. Does it have a traffic cam?”

Felicity said, “Ooh. Beat you to it.”

The Flash pulled up a chair next to Michael. “I’m really bad at this whole secret identity business, and it seems like you’re going to be sticking around for a few days.” He took off his mask. “So I’m Barry Allen. I work as a CSI.”

Mick turned to him, expression of growing recognition on his face. “You’re that skinny CSI kid who was in the CCPD the day Snart and I were arrested.”

“Oh my God, can you not tell every supervillain we meet your secret identity?” Cisco made strangling motions at Barry.

Felicity’s voice, over the speakers, said, “It’s okay. Oliver’s even worse at it than you are. Half the city knows Oliver Queen’s the Arrow.”

“Oh, that’s interesting information.” Mick just laughed but didn’t take his eyes off the computer screen. Cisco groaned and put his head in his hands. “Nah. I already knew,” Mick admitted to Cisco. 

“Doesn’t actually make it better, Heatwave,” Cisco said.

Michael laughed, “You’re a supervillain, correct?”

Mick raised his eyebrows in amusement. “Snart’s more of the supervillain. I just like burning things and money.”

Cisco turned to Mick. “Oh really? So I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if I took my heat gun back?” He started reaching for the gun Mick had strapped to his side.

Mick looked offended and caught Cisco’s hand. “It’s my heat gun now. Snart stole it fair and square.”

Barry opened his mouth. Barry closed his mouth. Cisco got his hand free and told Barry, “Just don’t bother. I’ve already tried.”

Michael saw the computer screen pull up something, and watched a car pull into a motel off the right exit of highway, in the right time frame. “What’s that?” He pointed to it.

“Felicity, tell me what you’re seeing on your end, hacker of hackers.”

Felicity’s voice came through the speakers. “Mmm. It appears someone drove from the police blockade off that exit around the right time to that motel and they were using a scrambler.” 

“Should I go take a look?” Barry said.

“Bear, you’re cute. You’re fast. But Oliver is better with guns,” Felicity told him.

Michael frowned. “Is there a risk that Oliver will just arrest Leonard?”

Cisco said, “Not if we tell him to bring him here. Oh, and Barry, we’re probably going to want Caitlin here.”

\--

There was a shout, and the hand on his neck let go. A figure in green and a whoosh of an arrow, and a sensation of rotation. Cool air hit his lungs again. He tried to take a breath, and gagged as air hit water. A hand touched his upper back and he tensed and then the rope around his hands was being cut and he was being lifted over the guy in green's shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Kellerman lying on the floor, but he couldn’t tell whether Kellerman was alive or dead.

\--

A figure in green appeared at one in the morning, holding a man over his shoulder. "Oliver," Barry greeted, taking the man down and putting him on a stretcher. Michael stared at the man, who blinked his eyes open and winced as his leg touched the stretcher, hands dusting over his knee and ankle, though judging by his bruising cheek and cut lips, that wasn’t the only injury he had sustained: all because he happened to look like Michael. A hell of a lot like Michael actually. 

"I have your man. And I have the interrogator's phone. I'm going to bring it to Felicity." The man in green said to Barry then turned to Michael, “Are you his brother or something?”

Barry turned to stare at Michael then back at the man on the stretcher. “It’s a long story.”

The man pushed himself up on his elbows to a sitting position and turned his gaze on Michael. There was a moment where his head rocked back. Then it became intrigued. He turned back to the man in green and said in a carefully pronounced drawl, “No. We are not related at all, Arrow. But, now, I guess I’ll have to owe you one. For now, thanks.” He grimaced, expression saying the idea of owing someone was something distasteful. “Don’t suppose you’d have my bag and gun, would you?”

“You have your life,” the man in green – Arrow or Oliver – scowled at him.

The man on the stretcher shrugged and wiggled his fingers. “Fine. I’ll just go steal it from lockup.” He turned to see that Caitlin and Cisco were there and turned back to the Arrow with a smirk. “Or I could have the Flash go steal ‘em for me. Who do you think I should hold for ransom this time, Ramon or Dr. Snow?” He smiled at the two of them. 

“Cold, why do you insist on making this harder than it has to be?” Barry asked him.

“Why don’t you lock up your villains?” Arrow asked Barry.

“Lian Yu? Secret offshore prison where you take people who never again see the light of day? I think I’ll pass. Besides,” the man, who must have been Leonard Snart gave him a sardonic look and then held up his fingers. In them was a wallet. Arrow gaped and put his hand to his pocket. Barry wasn’t much better. Evidently, it was Arrow’s wallet. Michael had to bite his lip to keep from chuckling at the expression on Arrow’s face when he realized it was his. Mick didn’t try to hold back.

“You stole his wallet while he was rescuing you from torture?” Barry aimed to grab it back but Leonard stuffed it into his palm. 

“I am signing you up for kleptomania therapy,” said Caitlin.

Leonard laughed. “Ooh. Do that. Last time I flirted with the doctor running it and got free coffee and muffins for six weeks. Besides, it’s not kleptomania. I just like it. Your wallet in exchange for my bag and gun.”

Arrow looked for all the world like an offended goose as he took the wallet from the thief’s fingers and handed over a bag. 

Leonard wrinkled his nose in the least sincere smile Michael had ever seen. “Thank you for not keeping it as evidence,” he drawled. 

Arrow vanished with a swoosh of green cloak.

Leonard winced again and blew air past his lips then danced his fingers over his leg again. “Don’t worry, Dr. Snow. I wouldn’t kidnap you again. Cisco, maybe. But then I’d hand you over to Lisa.”

Cisco spluttered. Leonard chuckled. “Speaking of which, is she okay?”

“She’s fine, Lenny,” said a voice from the door. 

His face broke into a blissful expression of happiness. “Lisa, how are you?”

“Fine now that you’re back, you jerk.” She walked over to get a better look at his face. “You had a girl worried half to death.”

Leonard nodded. “I’m alright now, sis. Safe and sound.” Michael knew from his jaw unclenching that he had relaxed considerably. “And how’s Mick?” he said.

“You idiot,” said a voice from the door. 

Leonard smiled. “Mick. Good to know you’re safe. Thought we were gonna tour the country, maybe pull a few jobs. You stuck around?”

Mick nodded and walked over to Leonard to get a view of him from the front. “Lisa called. There were problems.” He frowned. “You seen your look-alike?”

“I have.” Leonard turned back to Michael. “So you’re Michael Scofield?”

Michael nodded. “And you’re Leonard Snart.”

“Congrats on breaking out of prison. I would have done the same, given the circumstances.” He turned to Mick. “I have done the same, except with less political assassination and with more three strikes you’re in for life.”

Mick gave a grunt. 

Michael said, “My brother, Lincoln Burrows, is an innocent man, and someone framed him and killed all the witnesses.” 

Leonard narrowed his eyes. “Well, the FBI is trying to track you down and is using torture in a nondescript motel to do so. So they might be the ones killing all the witnesses.”

Michael nodded. “A man named Mahone tried to stop Linc and me from breaking his son out of a courthouse.”

Leonard tipped his head. “A courthouse? Really?”

Michael answered, “He was using him to lure us there.”

Leonard nodded as if that actually did make sense. “The FBI guy who took me to the motel talked to a guy named Mahone. His badge said Paul Kellerman. You probably want to keep an eye out for him. Oh and from the sounds of it, this goes right to the top. What the hell did you even get involved in?”

“Freeing me from death row,” said Linc from the opposite side of the room than Mick and Lisa had come in through. “Neither of us knew of the conspiracy at that point.”

Leonard turned his attention to where the voice had come from and sat up straight. “He’s your brother?”

Linc nodded. “Yeah.”

Leonard turned to Mick and back to Linc and then to Michael, inclining his head and frowning. “Would that mess up our tax documents?”

Barry interrupted. “You file taxes?”

Leonard turned to him. “I am not being arrested for not paying income tax.”

All of them smirked. “Okay, Al Capone. How would that mess up your tax documents?” Cisco asked.

Leonard glanced over at Mick, who shrugged. “It was complicated enough as is. We had to fill out single ones then joint ones in order to be able to file our last tax return. And then we had to call up a bunch of government departments. It was so complicated that the sweet lady we finally got ahold in the IRS sent us an anniversary card and a box of cookies from her niece’s Girl Scout troop because we were willing to wait on the phone with her for five hours while she walked us through filing jointly.”

“Filing jointly?” Caitlin frowned. 

Mick nodded, smiling, but eyes glaring out at everyone as though daring them to say anything. “The Thin Mints were good.”

Leonard laughed. “Yes, but given how much like us Scofield and Burrows look and that they’re brothers, things could be a little complicated for us.”

Mick realized what he was saying. “Oh. Eh. But I still remember my parents. And what happened to them. And your dad-.”

“Is rotting in a cell in Iron Heights and will hopefully die there when somebody inevitably grinds up glass and sticks it in his food,” Lisa spat.

They all turned to her, a little dismayed. Other than Mick, who said, “Here’s to that.”

Leonard scowled. “He’s rotting in jail. Let’s just leave it at that.” Lisa gave a little sniff. Mick shrugged.

“But long story short, we both know who our parents were. And we’re not brothers. So it shouldn’t disturb our marriage at all.”

“Wait! You’re married?” Caitlin said. 

Michael glanced at her, and at Linc, who was staring back at him. “We’re brothers, right?” Michael mouthed at him. Linc nodded. 

“What part of anniversary card did you miss?” Leonard turned to her.

“Well, that explains why that asshole in the hotel said honeymoon suite,” Linc said. Michael nodded.

Leonard turned his gaze on Michael and Linc and raised a finger. “Okay, one thing that’s probably been explained to everyone else’s satisfaction but mine, but indulge me: what are you even doing in Central City? In STAR Labs, for crying out loud?”

“He plans like you plan and needed something from a lab downtown. The big one down the street from the CCPD,” Mick said.

“Do you now? What is it? I might be able to help.”

Barry gaped at him. “Are you actually offering to steal it for him? In front of me?”

“I’d like to see you try to stop me. After all, I don’t kill people in town; you don’t report me; your identity doesn’t go viral.” 

“You know, I should just hand you over to the CCPD to deal with. They know the things you did and Joe can probably pin at least one of the open investigations on you.”

Leonard shot back, “It sounded to me like you were working with Scofield and Burrows. So I was offering to help them.”

“By stealing.”

“It’s what we do,” Lisa said.

“That’s good and all but this is a moot point!” Cisco announced.

“It doesn’t have to be what you do,” Caitlin shot over to Lisa, who sniffed.

“Oh really, who else would hire us?” Mick asked.

“Actually, as I recall, Luther Corp offered,” Leonard pointed out, smiling at her. 

Mick scoffed, “Yeah, as thugs.”

“Security, but yes, I will give you that.”

“Guys!” Cisco again tried to get everyone’s attention. Michael and Linc were by this point watching the proceedings enraptured.

Leonard turned to Mick. “But the bar and grill you went into a few years back when we were trying to go legit. You make a mean steak.”

Mick shrugged. “We have somebody else running that now, ever since Elliott went back into his old business.”

“You own a bar and grill?” Linc asked.

“Technically. But Snart, I don’t want to do other things. I like stealing.”

“Same.” Lisa shrugged.

“Oh my god! You and your family!” Caitlin made a strangling motion at Mick, then at Lisa.

“So we’re offering to help by stealing Michael and Linc what they need to get to safety. We are very successful at it, as it is our choice of professions, and when you’re not involved,” he waved in the general direction of the Barry, “we always pull off jobs successfully.” He turned to Michael. “And you. I heard you plan like I plan. What do you know about the location? And what is it you need exactly?” 

“Guys!” Cisco yelled at everyone. They fell silent and turned to him. “It’s a moot point. Michael and I agreed that he would test our security in exchange for making him what he needs.”

Leonard turned to Michael, who nodded.

Leonard inclined his head. “Well, why didn’t you say so earlier?” he drawled, but there was no animosity behind the statement and a glimpse of a small smile on his face. He moved his legs under him to get up and sat back down, reaching for his ankle and knee, face going pale. “Ooh. I don’t think it’s broken, but it should probably be looked at by a doctor. Dr. Snow, could you? Do you even do emergency medicine?” 

“I’m actually a bio-medical engineer. But I have set enough of Barry’s bones that I can set yours.”

“Thanks.” 

“Shouldn’t we check you over further? You were tortured,” Cisco asked him.

“Yes, but no worse than the last time the Darbynians tried to kidnap me. Bathtub was new admittedly. But I think the Arrow got there before I actually started drowning.”

“Bathtub?” Linc asked, looking at Michael in alarm. 

“Yeah, the cops demanded to know where you were and flat out refused to believe I wasn’t you. Finally convinced Kellerman in our one-on-one. Then I guess I just looked so much like you that he refused to buy I didn’t know where you were, must have thought I was helping you. So he shoved me face first into a bathtub to try to jog my memory.”

“You seem to be handling it well,” Caitlin said.

Leonard rolled his eyes at her. “Other than the fact that my ankle is injured. And my face will probably be feeling it tomorrow.” He gestured at his ankle as though it offended him.

“If you hold still, I can determine if you need the medlab or not.”

He leaned back. “Fine, Doc.”

She put her hand on his ankle, and he winced. “Ooh. Okay. Take me to medlab. I won’t object.” He put his hand up in Mick’s direction. Mick took it and put a hand around his back to help him up. 

“Are you sure you don’t need-?” Caitlin started.

Leonard stood on his good leg, leaning against Mick. “I’m good, Dr. Snow. Let’s go.” Caitlin shook her hand but led the way. Leonard, leaning on Mick so he didn’t have to put weight on his ankle, followed behind. 

Michael walked over to Barry. “I’m afraid I’ve confined the two of them to Central City, given how much like Linc and me they look.”

Lisa shrugged. “They’ll have to be a little trickier about it, but they’ll manage. Or rely on me to get them from place to place.” She frowned as something occurred to her. “That is, if I don’t look like anybody you know. I don’t, do I?”

Michael shook his head. “No. You don’t. But I’d still be worried. We’ve met Agent Mahone before and we’ve learned not to underestimate him. And Agent Kellerman sounds like he’s going to be tough as well.”

“We’ll handle. We’ve handled ourselves before.” Lisa smiled at him.

“What my brother’s trying to say is ‘be careful,’” Linc said.

“As should you. From my brother’s description of what happened, it sounds like they started torturing him when they still thought he was you.”

Linc nodded. “That is what it sounded like.” He glanced at Michael, who glanced back, reading worry on his brother’s face.

Michael sidestepped it by saying, “I’m going to notify Sucre. He should know.”

Linc tipped his head. “Any of the others?”

“Franklin?”

“We don’t have his number.”

“Are these other people you escaped with?” Barry asked.

Michael nodded. “Yes, two of them – not the two I just mentioned but another two – should go back into prison.”

“If you’re referring to T-bag and Abruzzi-?”

“Yes.”

“Let the feds deal with them, Michael.”

“We can find them and give a tip to the feds,” Cisco suggested.

“Abruzzi has a mob family. He’s probably already gone back to them.” 

“We’ve dealt with mob families before. My brother and Mick got the Santinis out of Central and made one of the Darbynians houses into a shelter helping homeless kids and victims of human trafficking.”

Michael smiled, and Linc laughed. “Really? How’d that happen?” 

“Lenny found out they were super involved with human trafficking and got pissed off, so he and Mick went in there guns blazing and cleared out the place, and convinced the guy in charge that unless they handed over the place immediately, Lenny would give evidence to the CCPD mob department what they were up to.”

“Does he actually have any of that evidence?” Barry asked.

“Some. Not enough to make it stick. But enough to scare the Darbynians into complying. And besides, he’d rather have them owing him a favor and staying out of that part of Central.”

Barry winced and swore under his breath. “You are aware that blackmail is illegal? And that I am a CSI?” 

“Oh, whatever will you do? It’s not like they stopped the fucking Darbynians from using the Roundabout Hotel as a hotspot for human trafficking under the CCPD’s noses.” Lisa rolled her eyes. 

“Hey, guys?” Cisco said. “Your pictures are on tv again.”

They all turned to the tv, while Cisco turned up the sound. “John Abruzzi, head of the Abruzzi mob family and recent escapee from Fox River State Penitentiary, has been shot and killed tonight when the FBI captured him. Agent Mahone, is it true that he was also one of the Fox River Eight?”

“Yes, and we intend to track down and capture the remaining escapees.”

“Earlier this week we received news that Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows were suspected dead. Does this still hold up?”

“No, it does not. The blood found at the crash site off Route 38 was revealed not to be the brothers.”

“Whose was it?” 

“It was pig,” Mahone said.

“What crash site?” Cisco turned to Michael and Linc. Michael had his lips pressed together.

Linc swore then smacked his fist against a wall. “I guess we’re not getting as far on that as we thought.”

“We should have had a week. We wouldn’t have had that much longer anyway,” Michael said.

“Yeah, but it makes getting there a whole lot harder.”

“It was a clever ruse by a clever and dangerous man to get us off his trail,” Mahone on the tv said.

“Turn that shit off,” Linc said.

“Where do you need to go?” Lisa asked.

“Why? You going to take us?” Linc asked.

Lisa shrugged. “Maybe. Depends.”

“Utah,” Michael answered.

Linc snapped his head to frown at Michael. “Michael, are you sure you want to tell them that?” 

“Day’s drive,” Lisa observed. “What do you need there?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Michael replied.

“Fine. Then you’re on your own. I’m going to check how my brother’s doing.” She walked off down the hall.

Michael met Linc’s eyes. Linc shook his head. Michael inclined his head in the direction of the room with the cots. Linc nodded.

\--

Caitlin was fastening a leg brace around his ankle and had an x-ray on the wall. Mick was holding Len’s hand. Lisa checked Len’s face, noting the clenched jaw. “Lisa, maybe you can convince your brother to take some painkillers.”

“I already agreed to take over the counter, Dr. Snow,” Len protested.

“Something a little stronger than ibuprofen?” Caitlin sighed, looking at Lisa and then Mick for any assistance.

Lisa glanced at her brother and raised an eyebrow at him. Len explained, “I’m fine. It was only a little sprain, as you said.” Len made a little gesture with his free hand that he didn’t want any. 

Caitlin shook her head. “Not just a little one, Snart.”

Lisa shook her head. “I’ll let you know if he needs it, but for now, he’s fine.”

Caitlin stared at all three of them. “Well, you’ll have to wear that brace for three days.”

“Fine. I’ll wear it.” 

Caitlin narrowed her eyes. Lisa figured she was wondering if that could have a double meaning. “And I want you to stay here overnight, just in case there’s something we missed.”

“Dr. Snow,” Len protested.

That got an interesting reaction: Caitlin aimed her finger at Len and did her best to loom over him. “Listen here, Leonard Snart. You are staying in that bed in my care. I mean it.”

Mick laughed. Len looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. “Can I sign out, AMA?”

“No,” said Mick and Lisa at the same time.

Len rolled his eyes. “You see what I have to deal with?”

“For once, your relatives and I agree. Take their advice if you won’t take mine. I want to make sure you don’t have a concussion or anything else that could show up later.” 

Mick squeezed Len’s hand. Len sighed. “Is there anything else you need to do with me?” he asked Caitlin.

“No, if you need anything you need, just hit the button on the side of the bed,” Caitlin said and pulled a curtain around the bed before walking off.

Lisa sat down next to Len and Mick. “So how are you doing?” 

“A little in shock by how much like us Michael and Linc look. A little worried by the FBI’s refusal to believe I wasn’t him. We’re going to have to stay in Central for the next couple of months. Even if we pull a really big job as ourselves in another city, we’re still going to be watching our backs to make sure no one thinks we’re them.”

Lisa nodded. “Michael observed the same thing. He was actually apologetic about it.”

“So, question: would it be better for us to let them get caught sooner or help them out in their goal?” Len asked.

“Are we sure we want to discuss this here?” Mick asked, gesturing at the ceiling.

Len smirked at him. “I am assuming Cisco is listening to our conversation. I am also assuming Cisco knows better than to tell them until we reach our conclusion. Cisco should also know to tell us if they do anything suspicious.”

The lights in the medlab turned off and back on. 

Len smirked. “Thank you, Cisco.” 

Lisa smirked back at him. “Same old, Lenny.”

“If we’re captured, I’m gonna need you to break us out, sis,” Len said.

“If we tell the pigs, it’s gonna get a lot more complicated for us, given how much like Tattoo and his brother we look,” Mick said. 

“Tattoo? Explain,” Len said.

“He’s got a full shirt of tatts with plans in them for how he’s getting out.”

“Presumably there were pictures taken of it when he went in?” Lisa asked.

“I’d assume the FBI has access to pictures with his tattoos.” 

“The question is: do they realize it yet?” Len asked. “And assuming yes, what then?” 

Mick frowned. “If they have access, then Central’s probably a coded location on the map.”

“Well that’s shitty for both of you,” Lisa said. Mick nodded.

“And you. It’s only a matter of time till they find out we’re related,” Len warned her.

“So even if we do nothing, we’re screwed,” Mick observed.

“We can’t notify the feds ‘cause then they’ll come down on us like a sack of bricks. And if we help the brothers?”

Lisa shrugged. “Then we’ll be moving away from what they know his plans are.”

“That’s only a concern if they can decode it,” Mick said.

“How complicated is it, Mick?” Len asked.

“It’s impressive.” 

“Go ask if I can see it. Judging by what his face did when he saw he saw me, I’d say the best way is to tell him I’m concerned he’s put our lives at risk.”

Mick nodded. “I’ll go ask him.” He stood. “Lenny, if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to stick it to the pigs who are chasing them.” Lenny nodded. “But I’m willing to do what you think is best.”

“Thank you, Mick.” Mick left the room.

Len turned to Lisa. “What do you think, sis?”

Lisa thought about what Len had said had happened to him regarding the bathtub and about what she had observed about Michael and Linc. “I think they need us and would be fairly good to have owe us a favor. Also, it sounds like either way, we may have to or be screwed.”

Len nodded and leaned back into the mattress. “That’s what I’m worried about. But what if we help them? Won’t we be even more screwed then?”

Lisa shrugged. “We don’t know enough about what they’re up against. But I think that if we help them clear their names, it’ll be fun and give us some more running around room. Besides, the Flash will probably let us grab a few things provided it is for the job.”

Len laughed. “Okay then. I can’t wait to see this tattoo.” 

Mick walked back in with a dismayed expression on his face. “Doc said it could wait till morning and that if I didn’t tell you to sleep, she would have to come over here.”

Lisa laughed. “And that threat worked?”

Mick sat and nodded. “She also threatened Tattoo and my mirror image with the same thing. They looked stupidly sheepish too.”

“Fine. We’ll sleep. Mick, could you stay? I case I need anything.”

Mick nodded. “Yeah, Lenny. I’ll stay.”

“Lisa, goodnight.”

Lisa nodded and went to the door. “Goodnight.”

\--

Len woke up in a cold sweat, a shout of “No!” dying on his lips. Mick took his hand, gave it a squeeze and said, “You’re alright. I have you.” Len opened his eyes, smiled at him and gestured for him to be closer. Mick scooted his chair closer, and Len wrapped an arm around his leg and moved his pillow onto his lap. Mick curled his hand around Len’s free one and watched till Len was asleep before going back to sleep himself.


	5. Meetings and Decisions

Morning arrived with Iris. “Morning, Barry, Cisco.” She handed them both coffee. They sat up, Cisco from his desk, Barry from a chair. “Long night?” she asked. 

“Iris, what are you doing here?” Barry sat up as the event of the night before struck.

“You didn’t come home after you walked out with Mr. Rory yesterday, so I figured I’d see what’s up.”

“We… umm… Listen, Iris, this maybe isn’t the best time.” Barry wiped his face.

“Okay. Tell me what’s going on.” Iris handed Cisco his coffee.

Lisa stepped into the room. “I’m running out to go get my assholes coffee and donuts. Would either of you like anything? - Oh, good morning, Iris West. – Cisco, Michael’s wondering if you want him to start on the security yet?”

Iris turned to her. “Is all this part of a plan of yours? Do you want to steal something from STAR Labs?”

Lisa gave her a tight smile. “Actually, no. My brother is just waiting until Caitlin releases him. He sprained his ankle. As for the man who was rescued from the CCPD yesterday, we’d really prefer if you stuck with Barry’s story and didn’t post any pictures of him in your newspaper. Oh, and he’s fine with going out with you to look for meta-humans, Barry. He kind of wants to see them. God only knows why.”

Iris tilted her head. “The man who was rescued from the CCPD? Wasn’t that Mick Rory?”

Barry stared at his feet and gave his head a little shake. “No.”

“Lisa, your brother says he would like a change of clothes as well.” Michael walked into the room, wearing his new STAR Labs sweatshirt. He saw Iris. “Hello, my name is Michael. I’m on loan from another lab and haven’t met everyone yet. I’m only going to be here for a couple days, and then I’ll be out of your hair.” 

Iris opened her mouth then frowned and turned to Barry. “Okay. What is the meaning of this? Are you trying to reform them? Are they here on a dare to see how long they can go without committing grand larceny?”

“Iris, you can’t tell anybody about them. Okay? Not that they’re here, not anything,” Barry said.

Iris scoffed, shaking her head at Michael. “Well, I came by to say that Dad’s on his way over. And I wanted the details before he got them. He isn’t going to like whatever this is.” She gestured between Michael and Lisa. Michael smiled at Lisa and gave a shrug, as though to say sorry. She rolled her eyes back.

“Iris, can you stall him?” Barry asked, taking Iris’s hands, chewing on his lip. 

Cisco nodded in agreement. “Please?” 

Iris glanced between them.

Michael studied their expressions and ventured, “This sounds troubling. Who is your dad?”

“Shut up, Snart,” Iris said. “Tell me why you want me to stall him,” she asked Barry.

“Iris, I can explain. He’s not Snart.”

Iris raised her eyebrow. “If you expect me to believe that, Bear, let me try to sell you the Keystone-Central Bridge. Why don’t you just tell Dad and me the truth about why you didn’t want Mick Rory in jail? Or if this is a thing the CCPD can’t know, tell me and I’ll make sure Dad gets the message.”

“Listen, Iris-,” Barry started.

“It was a dare actually,” interrupted Len’s drawl from Michael’s direction. 

Lisa, Iris, Cisco and Barry snapped their heads over to Michael. 

He continued, a little slower than he’d heard Len using the accent but still hitting most of the notes, he hoped, “The Flash saved me from the police up in Illinois, who thought I was someone else, and I agreed to repay him by telling him ways to improve security for STAR Labs.”

Lisa’s nose was twitching. When Michael paused to look at her, she had to turn away, chuckling through her nose. 

Iris raised an eyebrow at her and at him. 

Lisa shook her head. “No, sorry. Just laughing that he had to be saved like a damsel in distress. That’s all. Thank you for putting it that way.”

Iris narrowed her eyes and glanced between Michael and Lisa and Barry, and saw that there was none of the usual tension between Barry and the man who looked like Len, and none of the usual sibling rivalry between the man who looked like Len and Lisa. “Okay. What is really going on here?”

Lisa shook her head. “My brother and Mick’s doppelgangers wandered into town and there was a mixup. The man the CCPD arrested yesterday was not in fact Mick. So Red here and Cisco decided to run some tests on the four of them and make sure there wasn’t any sort of meta doing anything. Then, we will see my brother’s doppelganger and his brother on their way.”

“Has this been a problem in the past?” Michael said, dropping Len’s accent, as it seemed to be getting laughter from Lisa and weird looks from everyone else.

Iris frowned at Michael then shook her head. “Well, now I certainly believe you aren’t Leonard Snart.”

Michael laughed and ducked his head. “Did I do that bad on the accent?”

“You’re cute” Iris smiled at him and stuck out her hand. “Michael, was it?”

Michael nodded and shook it. “Yes. And I think I heard the name Iris?”

“Yes. Iris West.” 

Michael smiled at her. “Pleasure to meet you.”

Lisa said, “The difference is you’re more open with people you don’t know, and you don’t stand the right way. And a whole bunch of other problems. You also sounded like you were sounding out words. But otherwise the accent is good. It just went straight into the uncanny valley.”

Michael tipped his head at her. “Oh? And how would you suggest I get better at it?”

“Why do you want to know?” Lisa asked.

“Okay. Michael,” Iris interrupted, “Maybe you can answer a question for me: how is it you and Snart look so much alike?”

Michael glanced at Cisco and Barry, but didn’t find any answers as to what he should tell her. “I have no idea. It could be that we’re related, but I don’t see how. My mother died, and my father – well, I’ve never met him but I’ve seen his picture. I supposed it is possible that he-.”

“Len’s mother died, and our father is in jail.”

“Ah. Our father’s not. We saw him earlier in the month,” Michael said to Lisa then met Iris’ eyes and frowned, “Still, do you have a picture of him?”

“Cisco, pull one up,” Lisa said. 

Cisco did and rotated his computer. “Here he is. Lewis Snart.”

Michael studied the picture. “I don’t know. He doesn’t look like him from pictures, but I’ll check with Linc.”

Iris frowned. “Linc?”

Michael’s smile froze. “Yes. My brother. That’s who I meant by ‘our.’”

Iris’s frown deepened. “As in Lincoln?” 

“Ah.” Michael pressed his lips together and gave a slow nod.

Iris turned to Barry. “Michael and Lincoln. Do you watch the news? At all?”

Barry glanced at Michael, chewing on his lip. 

Michael sighed and nodded. “I am that Michael. And no, my brother, Lincoln Burrows, did not kill the Vice President’s – now President’s – brother.”

Lisa sighed, “Here we go again.”

Iris twitched her nose. “Wasn’t that for the court to decide?”

Michael met her eyes. “All the witnesses went missing, died or were intimidated. He was scheduled to die a few days ago before someone gave the governor evidence to look at. Then he was scheduled to die two days from when we escaped after someone else tried to push through his execution.” 

Iris did not look convinced. 

Michael sighed and decided to try another tactic. “He’s my brother, and he’s innocent. What would you do if your loved one was scheduled to die for something he didn’t do where justice was so badly botched?”

Iris swore under her breath, looked at Barry and swore again. “Is this why you’re helping him?”

Barry nodded. “I believe him.”

“If you believe him, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.” She turned back to Michael. “I’ll help you find out if your brother is innocent. I’m an investigative journalist and his foster sister.” She gestured at Barry. “If your brother didn’t do it, I’ll help find out who did.”

“No.” Michael shook his head. “We had a friend who was a lawyer helping us.” He remembered what had happened to her and a wave of pain and sickness filled him. In all likelihood, the pain was flickering over his face – Linc had always told him he showed emotion too easily - but he couldn’t stop his face from reflecting it. It was another death of someone he should have been able to protect. Another death chalked up to this conspiracy. If yet another person fell into harm’s way due to his plan, he wasn’t sure what he would do. “She died,” he explained to the alarmed faces around him. “She was investigating the conspiracy and got too close to whoever it is and now is dead.” He shook his head again. “I refuse to have anyone else end up dead.”

Iris glanced at Barry and then turned to Michael. “Then, you aren’t getting Barry involved either.”

“Iris!” Barry protested.

“No. He doesn’t get to involve you in finding out who actually killed the President’s brother unless he involves me too.”

Michael cleared his throat. “It won’t be necessary for either of you to get involved. As soon as I get what I need, I’ll be out of your hair altogether.”

Mick came into the room. “Hey. Lisa, haven’t you left yet?”

“You know what. Just give me your coffee order,” Barry said. “I’ll pick it up.”

Lisa grabbed a slip of paper from Cisco’s desk, wrote a few things on it, and Barry blurred out of the room with the slip.

Iris squinted at Mick. “Are you Mick or his doppelganger?”

Mick grinned at her. “I’m Mick.” 

“You know what?” Cisco announced, grabbing a name tag off his desk. “Why don’t we just put these on to make it easier?” He pushed a name tag and a pen into Michael’s hand’s then into Mick’s. Michael took his with an amused smirk, reminded of so many conferences he had attended and uncapped the pen. Mick looked down at his with an offended expression. “You can put Heatwave if you want.”

“Why don’t I just carry around my gun?” Mick asked, returning the pen and the name tag to Cisco’s desk.

A second later, a flash of light went by and Mick had coffee and a donut in his hand. Michael had a cup of coffee in his hand and a plate of donuts on the table and his name tag on his chest. 

A loud “What the hell, Barry?” drawled from the direction of the med lab. “Ooh, donuts,” sounded a second later. 

“Good donuts,” Mick agreed with his mouth full.

A second later, Barry was back in the room, handing Iris a cupcake. 

“Thank you, Bear,” Iris said. 

He was followed shortly by Linc, looking much better for the sleep, but still holding the coffee and a donut with a bewildered expression on his face. “I’ll never get used to that,” he complained, glancing at Barry.

Iris turned to him, wearing his half buttoned shirt and slacks, glanced back at Mick, wearing a gray Henley over another shirt and what looked like fireman pants, and seemed to be noting the difference in the way they were standing, judging by how her eyes kept darting from their shoulders to their legs to the way they carried themselves. Finally, she nodded. 

Michael noted the differences as well: could be useful. Then he turned to Linc. “Linc, check out the picture Cisco has on his computer. That’s not our dad, right?”

Linc looked at the computer. “No, it’s not our dad. Who is it?”

Lisa said, “Our dad.”

Linc said, “Yours and Len’s?”

Lisa nodded. 

Cisco added, “And it wouldn’t work with your ages if it was your mother. Snart is thirty three. Linc, you’re thirty three. Michael, you’re twenty nine. But yeah, Cold and Linc are born within three months of each other.” 

Lisa shrugged. “Maybe cousins then. Though if it was on Lenny’s mom side, we’ll never know. Dad only ever mentioned her when he was very drunk as good for nothing trailer trash.”

Cisco winced. Iris shook her head. 

“Fucking piece of garbage,” Mick agreed, taking a bite of his donut.

“Ours wasn’t much better. He split when we were kids,” Michael explained.

“He split when Michael wasn’t born yet and I was three,” Linc said. “Supposedly to work on for the Company that was somehow involved with my arrest.”

“The Company?” asked Iris.

Linc shrugged. “That’s the only name he gave it. Then he turned against them.”

Barry gave a slow nod. “How does that relate to you being incarcerated? If at all?”

Michael said, “We don’t know yet. We’re still trying to figure that out.”

“Give Snart a go at it. He’s good at figuring things out,” Mick said.

Michael smirked at him. “As soon as we have the information, we’ll be able to figure it out.”

Mick shrugged and took another bite of donut.

Caitlin walked in then, stared at Michael, with a nametag on in clear printed letters; Linc, in his half unbuttoned shirt; and Mick, who had gotten frosting on his nose, and shook her head. 

“Good morning, Iris, Cisco, Barry.” She omitted saying hello to Michael, Linc, Mick or Lisa and instead put her coat on her desk and Barry handed her a cup of coffee. “Thank you, Barry.” 

Mick laughed and walked over to her. “Hey, Doc. Can Snart go home yet? We don’t want to be here any longer than we need to be.”

Caitlin turned to him and put out a finger at him. “I’ll go check but if you try to kidnap me or anyone here, there are going to be problems.”

Mick held up his hands. Caitlin, still pointing at Mick, stalked out of the room in the direction of the med lab. Mick waited until she had left the room, frowned and glanced at Lisa, then followed her.

Michael said to Cisco, “I will start having a look at your security.”

Cisco nodded and waved him over to his computer, showing him what they had.

Barry approached Linc. “Would you mind if I ask you to accompany me on metahuman detection?”

Linc frowned. “If you’re sure I won’t be recognized.”

Michael looked up at Barry, who said, “Maybe you can ask about borrowing the heat gun or some of Heatwave’s clothing.”

Iris shrugged. “Cisco, didn’t you have a prototype gun?”

Cisco nodded. “Yes actually. Barry, it’s on my desk in the invention-.” Barry zoomed off. “Hey! I was still talking to you.”

Linc and Iris both found themselves snickering under their breath. “You’re an inventor?” Michael asked. 

Cisco nodded. “I invented the cold gun before Barry woke up because we didn’t know if we would need to stop him or anything. I invented the heat gun because I figured while I was playing with temperature, might as well, right?”

Barry blurred back in a second later. Linc found himself holding the heat gun, or a very good likeness of it and almost dropped it. “Warn a person!” he shouted after him. 

Cisco continued, “As I was saying, I have prototypes of it because I made it, but the material needed to power it is primarily in the actual heat gun, which I’m willing to bet those two have tampered with.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “They have. They got the parts to work for them. They made them have an auto setting of not kill. And they learned how to put them together again.”

Cisco turned to her. “By torturing my brother.”

Lisa shrugged. “There was only a single shot fired on a very light mode and then we drove you to the hospital afterwards.”

Cisco raised his hands and gestured like he wanted to say something but didn’t know what.

Lisa pouted at him. “What’s a little kidnapping between friends?”

Cisco gestured at her again and turned to Linc and Michael. “You see what I put up with?”

Michael smiled at them both. “You two should ask each other out.” That got spluttering on both their parts and Iris and Barry to shake their heads, laughing.

“Michael,” Linc said, “Stop doing that to people. He did this to Veronica and I…” Linc’s face fell, as did Michael’s.

“One day soon, there’s going to be hell to pay for the lives that were lost,” Michael said.

Iris tipped her head. “Who was Veronica?”

Linc shrugged. “Our lawyer friend. The one who was looking into my case and they shot her.”

Michael added, “She had found a tape that was faked, a witness, and an address.”

Iris nodded. “We will help you find them and bring them to justice.”

Michael met Linc’s eyes. “We can’t put your life or your brother’s life in danger. We’ve put enough people in danger as it is.”

Lisa said, “What if I’m willing to take you to Utah?”

Michael exhaled and made a considering expression. Linc looked over at her. 

Iris ventured a question, “What’s in Utah?”

Michael said, “How likely are you to try to go after it too?”

Iris shrugged. “All things considered, until we know what it is, we really can’t determine that.”

Linc looked from Michael, to Iris, to Barry, to Lisa, to Cisco and back to Michael. “Tell them.”

“DB Cooper’s money.”

Lisa laughed, “Which is the biggest fucking treasure hunt of thieves everywhere. What makes you so sure you have it?”

Michael smirked at her. “Because DB Cooper himself told me where it was.” 

Barry asked, “Who’s DB Cooper?”

“A guy in the 1970s who stole a lot of money and parachuted off a plane with it. No one’s been able to identify where the money went,” Cisco said to Barry.

Lisa smiled back at Michael. “I’ll help you get there. But my brother’s gonna want in.”

Michael glanced at Linc, who shrugged, “Sure. Why not?”

“I’m not sure I like this idea,” Barry said.

“It doesn’t involve stealing from anybody. It just involves finding it,” Lisa explained. “So are you ready for the greatest treasure hunt thieves have ever known?” She turned to Cisco and Iris. “It’ll be fun.”

Iris inclined her head at her then turned to Michael. “If it ends up not being where you thought, I’ll help you find it too.”

Michael nodded. “It’s going to be. But thank you. In the meantime, how is the stuff coming, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Iris asked, “What stuff?”

Cisco laughed. “Sometimes it’s better not to know.”

Barry turned to him with an expression of horror. “Okay, now I want to know what the stuff is.”

Linc shook his head. “I don’t even know, man. Let’s go chase down some of these meta humans.”

Barry glanced at Cisco, who gestured that it was okay. “Okay, let’s go. Actually, hang on.” He blurred from the room, was gone for a minute, and came back with a jacket. “Here this should work.”

“This Mick’s jacket?” Linc said.

“Yes. I explained you needed it to look more like him, and he said it would be funny having someone walk around as him because it was safer,” Barry said.

Linc laughed. “No, I get it, man. Dressing as supervillains because it’s less likely to get us captured. Not what I was expecting.” 

Barry added, “Technically, the supervillain has already been captured. We’re just borrowing him.”

Linc nodded at Michael. “You have this as part of the plan or something?”

Michael grinned and shook his head. “I didn’t know about the supervillain part. Or even the superhero part.”

Lisa smirked. “What can I say? When the Snart and Rory family decides to go supervillain, we go full out.”

Iris snorted. “I had to do a piece last week about that new golden sculpture in the center of town. It’s apparently attracting tourism.”

“That’s so sweet,” Lisa gave a sarcastic smirk, but then gave a little, delighted head duck and smile.

Linc put on the coat and fastened the prototype heat gun on to his leg. “How do I look?”

Lisa narrowed her eyes, walked over to him and shoved him back a little so he was standing differently. “There, now you look like Mick.”

Linc nodded turning to Michael, who gave him a nod. “Let’s go,” he said, then turned back to Lisa. “Wait. Should I do his voice too? Does he drawl the way your brother does?”

Lisa shook her head. “No, he was brought up in Keystone. Much more generic Midwest, much less recognizable.”

Iris turned to her. “Why do you know so much about disguising people as your brother and his criminal partner?”

Lisa raised her eyebrow and shrugged. “I would tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” Iris rolled her eyes at Lisa. 

Barry said, “Alright. We should go. Cisco, where is the metahuman alert system telling you?”

Cisco pulled up a system on his computer that pinged multiple times and narrowed down on a few blocks. He typed in something and half the squares disappeared. “Uh, over in the area of 3rd and Deloitt.” 

“Great. Come on, Heatwave,” Barry grinned at Linc. Linc couldn’t help but grin back.

Michael nodded. “Linc, stay safe out there.”

Lisa shook her head in amusement. “I’m going to go check on my brother.”

“So how are you able to track all the metahumans?” Michael asked Cisco and Iris before she left.

\--

When Lisa walked into the med lab, Caitlin was holding a light up to Len’s eyes. The boot was resting on a table, off his foot. “You don’t have a concussion, from what I can see.”

“So can I go home?” Len asked.

Caitlin nodded. “Yes, but no strenuous activity for at least a week. That includes stealing anything.” She gestured at both Mick and Len.

Mick nodded dutifully. Len scowled. “Tell you what: I promise I won’t steal anything for a week. How’s that?”

Caitlin sniffed at him, but said, “Fine.” She turned to Mick and Lisa. “Don’t you steal anything either.”

“The brothers want to go to Utah. They think they’ve found DB Cooper’s money,” Lisa informed the room. “I agreed to drive them.”

Caitlin turned to her. “Didn’t I say no stealing?”

Lisa shrugged. “It’s not stealing.”

Len agreed with her, “It’s a giant treasure hunt that rookies go on. Why do they think they know where it is better than anyone else who’s been looking for the past thirty years?”

“Because they supposedly met DB Cooper.”

“Go on. I’m listening. Oh, and Dr. Snow, you agree not to tell anyone?” 

Caitlin looked offended. 

“Iris and Barry already know as well,” Lisa said. 

Len and Mick took in that information. “So just checking that I can get up, right, Dr. Snow?” Len asked.

Caitlin nodded.

“Good,” Len got up and grabbed his boots from beside the door. “I’m going to see how Michael is so sure he knows where that money is.”

\--

Iris looked at Cisco. “It’s Cisco’s doing, and it’s genius.”

“I tapped into all the local traffic cameras and hacked a lot of local cameras as well. If it’s in Central City, I can probably find it.”

Michael opened his mouth. Michael closed his mouth and frowned at Iris. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but that sounds fairly illegal.” 

“What do you have my daughter and Cisco involved in that’s illegal, Snart?” said Joe West from the door.

Cisco looked at Michael, who had turned to look in the direction the new voice was coming from.

“Dad, listen, this isn’t Snart. We’re checking him and his friend over to make sure it isn’t anything metahuman related.”

Joe looked at Michael and then back at Iris. “So who is that then?”

Michael stepped forward and stuck out his hand. “Michael, at your service. As soon as they find out my… friend and I aren’t being influenced by any meta, they’ll let us go.”

Joe squinted at him. “You normally look like that?”

Michael nodded. 

“You live in Central?” Joe asked.

“No, we were roadtripping through and got mistaken for… your city’s supervillains. The Flash caught me and shoved me in one of the cells to make sure I wasn’t. After things are sorted out, we’ll be on our way.”

Joe continued staring at him. “Are you sure I haven’t seen you somewhere before?”

Michael looked at him and shook his head. “I haven’t been to Central City before.”

Iris said, “Look, Dad, he’s agreed to help us with security for a few days until we find out if another metahuman is making people look like each other. It could be that someone’s messing with their perception.”

Joe turned to Iris. “Hasn’t Caitlin looked into that?”

Cisco said, “Caitlin is actually busy with-.”

“Well, if it isn’t Detective West!” Len’s voice sounded from the door.

“Is that Snart?” Joe asked.

“Ahh, if it isn’t the cop who arrested us,” Mick greeted.

Iris nodded at them. “That’s Snart and Rory.” Lisa crossed her arms from the opposite door jam. “And Lisa Snart.”

Joe frowned. “Who was that in the station yesterday?”

Michael said, “Actually, that would be my friend.”

Joe turned to him. “Your friend who happens to look as much like Rory as you look like Snart?”

Cisco nodded. “That is why we’re testing them.”

“Where is he now?” Joe asked.

“He’s out with Barry investigating leads on a few metahumans, Dad.” 

Joe turned to look at her, nodded and turned to Michael. “And neither of you is a metahuman?”

Michael shook his head. “According to Cisco here, it only affected Central City, correct? This is the first time either of us has been here.”

Joe stared again at Michael, “Where are you from?”

Michael’s expression became hard and he gave a wry smile. “Chicago. Which is why we’re out of Chicago now. I knew Michael Scofield in school and it was actually a joke between us how much alike we both look.”

Joe raised an eyebrow and turned to Cisco and Iris. “You believe this?”

Michael sighed. “Must just have one of those faces.” He grimaced and then gestured at Leonard. 

Len swept forward. “Detective, I was recently in Illinois, bumping around on my bike, seeing the sights. Highway 55 is beautiful this time of year. And before you ask, I didn’t do anything traceable.” 

Len had gotten close enough to Joe that when he wiggled his fingers, Joe took a step back. “If you think I’m letting you anywhere near my pockets…” Joe warned.

“Aww, Detective, you used to let me near them,” Len said. “And who said I was gonna pick them or anything?”

Joe put Michael between himself at Len. “That was while I was still a rookie, before I knew better.” 

Len inclined his head and gave a small smirk. “Yeah, well, while I was there, someone FBI mistook me for Scofield in kinda a torture-for-intel first, ask-questions later sorta way. Now, you certainly don’t think I’m Scofield, do you?” Len wiggled his fingers again.

Iris frowned. “What does Snart mean you used to?”

Joe grunted. “When he was a kid-.”

Len grimaced, “And that story’s stopping right there, Detective, unless you wanna taste of my cold gun, which as Cisco can tell you, is colder than one’d call pleasant.”

Michael stepped in. “Could it wait until later, Iris? I imagine it isn’t something the entire room needs to hear.”

Iris nodded. “Forget I asked.”

Joe nodded, “Alright,” looking between Michael and Len. “Are you sure you aren’t related at all?”

Michael shook his head. “We’ve already had that conversation, and we’re relatively sure. Besides, I think I just have one of those faces.” He smiled at Joe.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay off your feet?” Caitlin’s voice said from the door.

Len rolled his eyes. “Ain’t been on them long enough for them to hurt, Doc.”

Caitlin saw Joe. “Oh, Detective West. How are you?” 

Joe turned to look at Iris, Cisco, the two in front of him and then to Caitlin. “Caitlin, tell me the truth as to what’s going on here.”

“Umm,” Caitlin stopped and looked at Iris and at Cisco. “I’m sorry, Detective West. You have to be more specific.”

Joe gestured like he wanted to strangle somebody. “Who is this?” He indicated Michael.

“Dad, listen. What they were saying is the truth. His name is Michael. He is from Chicago. He’d really like not to be arrested as Michael Scofield given that Snart was just – what happened to you again?”

Len said, “A man named Kellerman brought me to a motel, decked me a few times, kicked my ankle hard enough to sprain it, and dunked me into a bathtub. And the bathtub was after he found out I wasn’t Scofield. And given how much Mick,” he gestured and Mick came up to flank him, “Looks like his friend,” he inclined his head towards Michael, “And like Lincoln Burrows, you can understand while we’re all a little jumpy at cops right now, especially one who had no problem with the Pipeline.”

Michael nodded. 

Iris continued, “So that’s who he is. He took a childhood friend on a roadtrip, but the first place they stopped was here, and we thought he was Snart.”

Joe turned to Iris and sighed. “If that’s the truth.” Iris nodded. Joe turned to Caitlin. “Is that the truth?” 

“It is, Detective West,” Caitlin answered.

“Cisco, you agree too?” Joe asked.

“Yep. Which is why we’re just making sure that there isn’t a metahuman to blame for why they look alike,” Cisco replied.

“Okay, I’m willing to accept it.” He turned to Michael.

Barry blurred back into the room with Linc, who still seemed disoriented by the blurring motion, but was grinning from ear to ear. “Michael, I just saw someone healing a person with nothing but their bare hands!” Linc said.

“Cisco, it’s not someone we need to worry about.” Barry started then saw Joe, and Michael standing across from Joe. “Uh, Joe, listen, I can explain. Linc didn’t do it and somebody’s apparently been killing the witnesses and tampering with the evidence. We have to help them prove he didn’t do it.”

The rest of the room stared at Barry. 

“Bear,” Iris said. “Sometimes, you need to listen before talking.”

Joe was now glaring at everyone in the room. “And what did you say your friend’s name was, Michael? And your last name?”

“Listen, they’re going to be out of your hair tomorrow and in a car on the way to find out who really killed the now President’s brother. Because Linc here didn’t do it,” Lisa said. “Either that, or Lenny, Mick and I will take everyone here hostage, throw you all in the Pipeline, force Cisco to show us how it works, and then they will be out of your hair. So do you agree not to tell anyone?” 

Joe turned to her with a bemused expression. “Why have you agreed to help them?”

“I have my reasons. That and they’ll owe me a really big favor,” Len said.

Caitlin frowned. “Do you ever use any of these favors?”

Len smirked, “Yes. When I need to.”

Cisco laughed. “That and you can’t go anywhere while they’re still looking for them.”

Len inclined his head. “Yes, there is that.”

Michael winced. “I am sorry my escape has made things more difficult for any of you.”

Len shrugged. “It has. Besides, I want to see the look of terror in Kellerman and Mahone’s eyes when they realize they messed with the wrong guy.” 

Joe winced. “Barry? You believe them? That Lincoln Burrows didn’t do it?”

Barry and Iris nodded. “Please, Joe? We need to help them. Otherwise, Linc will be executed. And judging by the people who captured and tortured Snart, Michael might be too.” 

Joe looked between his kids. “Fine. Just get the hell out of Central as soon as they make sure you aren’t being affected by a meta. Barry, Iris, come with me. You two and I are gonna have a little talk about helping known fugitives. Again.” 

Joe walked out with Barry and Iris looking sheepish behind him. Cisco took Michael and went to go check on the chemical. Len and Lisa met eyes with Len inclining his head toward the other room and Lisa giving a single nod: they went off to talk plans. 

Caitlin looked at the two others remaining in the room and said, “If either of you start any fires or shoot anyone, I will know.” Both Linc and Mick nodded and she left the room to go in the direction of med lab. 

Mick came over to Linc. "Snart's pissed and wants to find out who did this, why and hurt them enough to make them feel it." 

Linc nodded. "Michael wants to find out why they are putting a bullet in the head of anybody connected to this. You saw Abruzzi get it. Will they try to shoot all of us first and ask questions later?" 

"Seems that way. Snart wants to help you and Tattoo clear your name." 

“Tattoo? Huh, that is a good one. You usually nickname people?”

“Yeah. I don’t know.” Mick shrugged. “It helps me keep them straight,” he said for explanation.

Linc nodded. “In prison, everyone had nicknames for each other.”

Mick laughed. “That sounds like the can. What was yours?”

“Linc the Sink,” Linc grinned.

“As in everything but?”

Linc nodded. “I went up against someone my second week in, and well, no other cons bothered me after that.”

Mick tipped his head. “Nobody really bugged me in the can. Ever. Probably because of the original reason I got tossed in.”

“Oh? And why’s that?”

“Arson, at the age of eleven. I burned down a house. How about you?”

"I never did arson. I got involved in drugs and other shit to put Michael through school after Dad bailed and Mom died." 

Mick gave a slow nod. "Snart did that for his little sister. Except no drugs. Snart doesn’t touch drugs. And their dad didn't bail. They would have been better off if he did." 

Linc grimaced and nodded. He had met people in Fox River whose families were glad they were in jail and not still bothering them. Hell, T-Bag was a prime example of that.

"So we got him thrown in jail," Mick continued.

“He still alive?” Linc asked.

Mick wiggled his hand. “Yeah, unfortunately. But we know his cell number over in the prison and receive regular updates on him. I made sure he knows that I will light him on fire if he even thinks about escape.”

“You really want him to stay in jail,” Linc concluded.

“No shit.” Mick nodded and decided to change the subject. “But anyway, where are you off to after Utah? What are you going to do when you get there?”

“Michael has the plan,” Linc said.

Mick raised an eyebrow and smiled. “I would say are you me, but…” He gestured at him.

Linc smiled. “Okay. Yeah. I know. Don’t think I don’t find that weird too.” He tipped his head back and forth. “We’re leaving the country. And then probably gonna open a little surf shop somewhere in Central America.”

Mick laughed. “You had enough criminal activity?”

Linc nodded. “Yeah. To last me a lifetime.” 

“Makes sense. Though, me, I like stealing things.”

Linc turned to him. “Yeah? How many times you been arrested for it?”

Mick shrugged. “I lost count after five. Possibly around ten that actually stuck. Snart tends to break us out after a month or so in the can.”

Linc threw back his head and laughed. “What is it with them? Them being our…” He shrugged.

Mick nodded. “I don’t know. Snart is happiest when he’s planning something.”

Linc smiled. “I wasn’t there when Michael was planning, but he was always happiest when making designs as a child. And when things go according to plan now.” Mick nodded. Linc turned to him. “If you two ever want to retire…”

Mick shook his head. “Not a lot of retirement in my job. But you know what? You make it to wherever, and I’ll come visit you.” 

Linc nodded. “Deal.”

Mick leaned back, considering. “You know, I think I’ll call you Prez.”

Linc opened his mouth then closed it and shook his head, laughing. “Sure, Heatwave.”

\--

Len turned to Lisa once they were out of the room. “They’re gonna get themselves arrested if they go out there by themselves.”

Lisa nodded. “Which is why I’ll take them, right?”

Len inclined his head. “I think they’re gonna need more backup than just that. I’d like to follow along as well.”

Lisa pursed her lips. “Why? You look like a wanted man now. Could wind you up in a whole lot of trouble.”

“I am a wanted man, remember? If I go in my anti-glare glasses with my gun and pull a job with Mick somewhere near there, you’ll be able to get there and get out without anyone thinking anything’s up.”

Lisa laughed. “Is this just because you want to make a national name for yourself, Lenny?”

Len smirked. “Partially. I want people to see my face and think Captain Cold, not Scofield.” 

Lisa scoffed at him. “What if you give Iris an interview and give her your contact over at the Times?”

Len wrinkled his nose. “Didn’t he get arrested last year for embezzlement?”

“Never charged, last I remember,” Lisa said.

“I’ll call him up. And give Iris the interview. We may need it.”

“Lenny, do you even know who is after them? How do you know this Mahone and this Kellerman are it?”

Len shook his head. “No. Scratch the earlier option of Captain Cold and Heatwave making a splash then. I’m gonna follow you and them and see if anyone else is trailing them. A bit a make-up and my anti-glare glasses should do the trick with my identity. Though so much for walking around in civies until this is over.”

Lisa sighed. “You okay with that?”

Len shook his head. “Hell no, I ain’t, but if I ain’t here in Central, I better be in my Captain Cold gear or in disguise.”

“Well, I do have that wig if you want it,” Lisa suggested. “You could go as Legolas.”

Len smirked. “No, thanks. I’ll find a way to go without somehow.”

Lisa shrugged then met her brother’s eyes, seriousness returning to her posture. “Lenny, what about Mick?”

Len gave his head a slow shake, his eyes momentarily flashing with fear. “Too much risk. They’ll execute him before he can convince them he’s not Linc. And even if they do find out, they might execute him anyway. History of arson ain’t treated kindly. Even if we had it erased.”

Lisa nodded. “That’s what I figured. You’re telling him yourself though.”

Len raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. How ‘bout I leave out the part where I’m worried he’s gonna wind up dead if he leaves Central for the time being.” 

\--

Cisco handed Michael safety goggles and a lab jacket and they walked into the chemical section of STAR Labs together. “So I checked your background. You have a master’s in civil engineering.”

Michael nodded. “Yes.”

Cisco shook his head. “What were you doing in prison?”

Michael gave a small smile. “Breaking out my brother. I had to get in to get him out.”

Cisco turned towards him. “You could probably stay on here if you wanted. I could get Felicity on the phone again and we could make it seem like you died and give you a new identity.” 

“You already made that offer, Cisco. It is a very nice offer and very tempting, but they are still looking for me and for Linc and will eventually find us if we stay. And I have the feeling you don’t want too much scrutiny here.”

Cisco nodded then narrowed his eyes, considering. “If anyone came, they’d probably just be confused. I mean, we recently had issues involving Barry’s time traveling speedster mentor who was secretly evil.”

Michael blinked at that. “Still, I don’t want anyone here getting shot because of my actions.” 

Cisco met his eyes and shook his head. “You ever need another career, you should consider superhero.”

That surprised Michael into a laugh. “You know, I’ll consider it.”

Cisco smirked at him. “So back to the topic at hand, you could have designed this stuff anywhere. Why wait till now to get it?”

Michael frowned. “I’m worried the FBI may have broken my messages and might be able to find out where I put it.”

Cisco stared at him again. “So this is a backup?”

Michael winced. “I didn’t think anyone would be able to crack it before I we had already gone through the worst of it. And I don’t have any other way of getting it.”

Cisco gestured at the lab table with the stuff in question on it. “Why do you need it anyway?”

Michael shook his head. “You don’t want to know that.”

“Try me.”

“I’m trading it. For safe passage.”

Cisco stopped. “See? One second, you’re saying the most hero thing ever, like you need to leave to make sure nobody gets shot, and then you say that you’re giving someone nitroglycerine for safe passage, I guessing out of the country, which means you’re giving an explosive that is dangerous even if you’re exposed to it too long to a coyote, who is likely to trade it to a drug mule or something.” Michael closed his eyes and sighed. Cisco added, “Just so you know. ‘Cause that’s definitely not what heroes do.” 

“That’s what they wanted. And actually they wanted it for its medical uses.”

Cisco stared at him. “You don’t… do you actually believe that?”

Michael said, “I like to believe the best of people. It helps me be able to do this.” He grimaced and met Cisco’s eyes. “However, on the off chance that they are not, that’s why I requested this particular formula, which can only be used for the medical use without a lab to remake it.”

Cisco gave Michael a small smile. “You had me worried there for a moment.” He put his hand on a box on the table. “Here it is.”

Michael put a hand on it. “Okay. Let me study your security system for the next couple hours and then I’ll make suggestions for what you can do to improve it. Will that cover it?”

Cisco nodded. “Yeah, that’ll cover it.”

Len appeared in the door. “Hi.”

Michael nodded at him. “Hi. Can I help you?”

“Ten percent,” Len announced.

Michael tipped his head forward. “Just for the drive? We’ll find a way to get ourselves out there on our own at that rate.”

Len inclined his head. “The drive and someone to find out who’s after you.”

Michael turned to him. “Agent Mahone is after us.”

“Thus far, you know about Mahone and Kellerman. But my guess is the conspiracy’s probably gonna send someone else, now that you know about those two.”

“Do they know we know about them?”

Len shrugged. “Is it really a chance you wanna take? Your brother’s life is on the line. I know what Cisco here would do.” He smirked at Cisco, who mouthed, “Fuck you” at him.

“Ten percent,” Michael repeated, considering.

Len inclined his head. “In return, we’ll find out who’s after you and why. Help clear your name. And if needed, we’ll keep them off your backs while you get the money.” 

Michael nodded. “Ten percent it is.”

\--

Michael, Len, and Cisco walked back into the main room. “If we give them ten percent, they will keep the FBI off our back while we get the money,” Len explained.

Linc and Mick started protesting at the same time. “Ten percent, Michael…”

“Ten percent, Len…”

Linc narrowed his eyes at Mick, who narrowed them back. 

“I want to know who these people are, so we can tell if it affects our out of state prospects,” Len explained to Mick.

“Leonard has agreed that if they find out anything, they will let us know.” Michael explained to Linc. 

Linc and Mick looked at each other and shrugged. “Ten percent it is.”

Len turned to Michael. “So we’re working together for the time being.” Michael nodded.


	6. The License Plate Game

Michael and Linc walked in with their gear later that day when Lisa said the appointed meet up to get ready was. Lisa had changed clothes into something with some similarity to a trucker uniform, not much on closer inspection, but enough to pass first glance. Lisa gave them a once over, even going so far as to tip Michael’s face from one side to the other. Len came in to observe from his vantage point against the door. 

Then Lisa sighed and turned to raise an eyebrow at Len, as did Michael and Linc. They also raised their eyebrows, but in a different way than Lisa. Len no longer looked like Michael, or at least that wasn’t the first thing anyone would notice about him. Goggles across his eyes, a thin blue jacket buttoned up to his throat and skinny utility pants that didn’t leave much to the imagination were not something Michael could ever see himself wearing, and the attire showed off both his posture and level of comfort in his own skin. Altogether, it gave off the impression of watching a tiger move – a very dangerous, very calculating, very, well, cold tiger. Michael couldn’t help but smile at how much the man supervillain nickname suited him.

“Sis,” he said, his drawl was thicker than usual too, “I’ll need to borrow your bike. Mine’s unfortunately not available right now.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “Just don’t get it impounded like you did yours.”

Len grinned. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Lisa shrugged. “That’s what you say.” She gestured at Linc and Michael. “So what do you think?” 

Len studied them, inclining his head. Linc felt a moment of déjà vu that he was being looked over by their mother again before Christmas dinner right before she did the tsk tsk noise of disappointment. The thought made the hair on his arm stand up. It was only for a second though, before Len shrugged. “They can’t get out together, that’s for sure. Here, let’s get spare trucker uniforms. Brown, I think. That should help a little.”

“Brown.” Lisa nodded. “Shorts?”

“No shorts,” Michael said. “Will it work to disguise us?”

“No one ever looks at delivery people’s faces. I should know. It’s how we pull half our jobs. I even delivered something to the CCPD after a job, to find out what they knew. Me and Mick’s pictures spread across their desks and they signed for the packages and everything.”

“I feel that I should probably note that down somewhere for Barry to pass on to the CCPD,” Cisco shouted from his computer.

“Mmm. But not till after we’ve cleared their names, right, Cisco?” Len said. “That’d hardly be good for their cover.” 

Cisco met his eyes. “Let’s just agree to work together until their names are cleared, yeah?”

Len turned back to Linc and Michael then took out his phone. “Mick, bring over the UPS uniforms. The ones with pants.” He paused and then smirked at whatever Mick was saying in response. “Yeah. And the 4 C’s shirts.” He hung up and said, “He should be here shortly.” 

Michael asked, “Why brown?”

Len inclined his head and moved the goggles up onto his forehead. “Because if it was an Illinois state penitentiary, they probably had you wearing blue. Brown brings out different undertones than blue does, which acts like make up to disguise identities.”

Michael nodded, taking in the new information. 

Linc frowned. “So you’re gonna be following us? That a good idea? You’re wearing blue.”

Michael responded for Len. “I don’t think anyone will mistake him for me wearing that.”

Linc narrowed his eyes. “Guess not. But do you think there’s gonna be someone following?”

Len nodded. “I’m certain of it.”

Linc turned to Michael. “Same people who framed me and kept chasing away witnesses.” 

Len added, “And Kellerman and Mahone, though they’ll be more open about it.”

Cisco nodded. “I’m setting up a way that we can potentially track them and know what they’re doing, but we might have to slip something on to them to.”

Len gestured out with his hand. “If you give it to me, I’ll slip it onto whichever of them is trailing them.”

Cisco tipped his head. “Wouldn’t that blow your cover?” 

“How sweet, Cisco. I didn’t know you cared.” 

“Yeah. You know I don’t, Cold,” Cisco responded. 

Len smirked. “I’ll deal with my cover.”

Lisa turned to survey her brother, frowning at him and turning back to Cisco. “Cisco, how far do those communicators works?”

Cisco nodded. “Actually, I’ve tweaked them so they’ll work across distances. If you want, I have an emergency one for each of you, just in case you get into trouble. These babies are tuned into a B Network, and it’s one way, so you won’t get radio from Flash operations, but we’ll still know if you get into any trouble. Bear can be there asap and hopefully get you away from them.” He walked around the desk to hand them out. They put them in. “Test 1 2. Test test,” he said into one of them, his voice coming out of the speakers on his computer.

Cisco had them each check voice as well. Each of them worked. 

Mick walked in wearing his goggles and fire gear. Cisco walked over to him, glared at him, grabbed his head and deposited a communicator into it. “What’s this, kid?”

Len informed him. “It’s a communicator. But Mick, I’d like you to stay here.”

Mick frowned. “That an order, Snart?”

Len gazed at him. “Do I have to make it one?”

Mick glanced at Linc. “No. I don’t want to be on death row. You want me to do anything?”

Len smirked. “Be in Central. Just in case anything should go wrong.”

Mick glanced at Linc and Michael then back at Len. “What if they shoot you?”

Len tapped the communicator. “You’ll know and can get my exact location out of Cisco here.” 

“Huh,” Mick said and put his in. “You trust him with your location. Is this something we need to talk about?”

“Only on this job. Cisco, I’ll lose this first chance I get so you can’t track me.”

“Cold gun, Captain Cold.”

“What if I ain’t using the cold gun?” Len turned to survey Cisco.

Cisco shrugged. “I’ll still find a way. You know I will.” Len grinned back at him.

Michael approached the computer. “You have a system that can track down his cold gun?”

Cisco pointed in Michael’s direction. “Hands off. You only get to see it if you stay on as a member of the team.”

“Does that include Mick if he helps the Flash track down metas?” Len smirked at Cisco.

Cisco checked Mick’s expression. “You agree to play nice with the cops? Somehow it doesn’t sound like you, Heatwave.”

“Don’t know. You could see how mad it makes the cops,” Len suggested. 

Mick laughed. “Fine. But only as your point person. Tattoo, Prez, here’s your UPS uniforms.” Cisco hung his head trying not to laugh at Michael’s expression at the nicknames.

Len inclined his head and took them, handing one to Linc and one to Michael. “These can go on over your undershirts, but I’d recommend changing into them.” 

They went, and when they came back, they were wearing them. Mick studied Linc. “You typically wear things unbuttoned to mid-chest?”

“Yeah, I like it better, but not in prison, I didn’t.”

Mick nodded. “Good. Though give it an extra button so it hangs right on you.” Linc did. 

Len was studying Michael. “How do I look?” Michael responded to Len’s intent stare. 

“Lisa?” Len asked.

Lisa looked at him as well. “It’ll do. Although, Michael, you do need to calm down and act normal. With the way I imagine you and your brother have been acting, you’re probably getting every single cop to Fox River double checking you to see if they’ve seen your faces before.” 

Michael blinked.

“Even if you don’t though, I’m planning on having you change back halfway there when I change license plates, and then changed back into these uniforms when we’re nearly there.”

“The old license plate trick?” Len said.

“Complete with two other license plates.”

Len inclined his head, a gesture that they both knew meant he should have known she had transportation under control and was butting out. “Good.” 

“Let’s set out then. Lenny, I’ll take you as far as my apartment. Keys are where they always are.”

Len pursed his lips. “Fifteen minute head start should do it?”

Lisa inclined her head, mirroring Len’s earlier gesture. Linc nodded. “That’s how close they were following when Dad tried to bust me out.”

“Fifteen it is then.” 

“Alright, then we’ll be out of your hair, Cisco,” Linc said.

Cisco shook his head. “Ear piece, remember? You need anything, just tap your ear and speak into it. I’ve gotten the calibration up so it can even pick up a whisper, and it can pick up your location.”

Michael blinked and nodded. “Thank you for your help, with everything.” He indicated a cooler.

“Yeah, good luck with everything.” Cisco shook his head at him.

“Snarts, keep me updated as to what’s going on,” Mick said.

“Will do, Mick,” Len inclined his head. “Burners.”

Outside, the four of them climbed into Lisa’s truck and drove away. 

Mick walked back in with Cisco. “Got anywhere I can test my gun?” Mick asked Cisco as soon as they were inside. 

Cisco turned to side-eye him. “Why does it need testing?”

“Because I want to. Any other stupid questions, kid?” 

Cisco gazed at him. “There’s a section of the Pipeline that we use to test Barry’s speed. I’ll show you. Don’t make me regret it, Heatwave. If I hear you’ve kidnapped anyone, I can put sleeping gas into the pipeline and you’ll wake up in a seven by seven cell. And if kidnap Caitlin or me again, you don’t want to know what’ll happen. 

Mick laughed. “I don’t promise nothing. However, I’m willing to say truce until this job is done. You’re good at threats, kid.” 

When Cisco got back from showing Mick to the Pipeline testing ground, Caitlin was back in the room. “Cisco, I drew a vial of each of their blood. It’s currently in the freezer. I was thinking just in case there is a meta who was causing the similarities.”

Cisco turned to her. “You know what I think? Snart and Scofield are likely related.” He pulled a lollypop out of his desk and offered one to Caitlin, who shook her head.

“I don’t see how they could be.”

“I don’t know. Maybe Snart’s dad?” Cisco said.

Caitlin winced. “Do you think either of them would like to know that, given what Detective West told us about Snart’s father?”

Cisco shook his head in agreement. 

“I also cleaned an injury Lincoln sustained in trying to rescue his son.”

Cisco frowned. “He didn’t say he was injured.”

Caitlin shook her head. “It’s hard getting any of them to admit they need medical care. Snart tried to get up and leave less than an hour after he’d started drowning.”

Cisco rolled his eyes then moved closer to her to whisper. “Heatwave’s still here, by the way. He’s agreed to be their point person.”

Caitlin tensed and frowned. “As long as he’s agreed not to kidnap anybody while he’s here.”

“He has.” Cisco nodded. “Just wanted you to know. If you aren’t okay with it, I’ll tell him to go find somewhere else to be point.”

“Thank you. Though I think with everything we went through in the past year, his kidnapping both of us is not the thing that’s going to wake me up at night.” Caitlin wrinkled her nose. 

Cisco sighed. “I know, right? I try not to think about Dr. Wells.”

Caitlin nodded. “Out of curiosity, what is our resident arsonist doing now?” 

“Testing his heat gun in the pipeline. I have him on visuals. Which by the way, Scofield was able to recommend new places to put them where they’d be all but invisible and still able to capture everything.”

Caitlin shook her head. “He’s interesting, isn’t he?”

“Interesting is one word for him,” Cisco agreed. 

Caitlin spun around at the note in his voice. “Do you think he’s lying about his brother not having done it?” 

Cisco shook his head. “I think he believes it and I think Burrows definitely believes it.” A grin broke out on Cisco’s face. “Heatwave gave them nicknames, and they’re actually pretty good.”

Caitlin sighed. “Do I even want to know?”

Cisco nodded. “Tattoo for Scofield. Prez for Burrows.”

Caitlin gaped. “He didn’t!”

“Burrows apparently likes it.”

Caitlin shook her head, glanced at Cisco, and began chuckling. “I think I will take you up on that lollypop.”

\--

The three of them had swung by a bodega to grab snacks before the ride. Lisa insisted on doing it at a given place, and insisted they respond to her as if they were Len and Mick. They went in, got a nod from the kid behind the register, selected their snacks, and paid for them. The kid all but hummed with glee. 

“What your problem?” Linc asked.

Kid held up his hands, flashing Lisa and Len a terrified look. “Sorry, man. Didn’t mean nothing by it. It’s just business goes up when you pull a job and I just want to say good luck,” the kid stammered out.

“Thanks, kid,” said Linc.

“Come on, _Mick_ ,” Lisa said. “Don’t wanna miss Lenny’s timeframe.” 

Linc stepped back. “See you around, kid.”

Michael decided not to open his mouth and just inclined his head with a smirk, as he had seen Len do. 

Once they got outside, Lisa said, “Why are you trying to learn my brother’s mannerisms, out of curiosity?”

“It could be useful,” Michael answered.

“Well, I guess you’re getting better at them. Slowly.” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Point taken,” Michael conceded.

“You aren’t to do them without letting me or my brother know,” Lisa said. “If we find out you’ve been mimicking him without our permission in any way he might not want you to, he will find you.” 

“Got it.” Michael nodded.

“Okay. If everyone has their snacks, let’s go get on the road.”

They got into the truck, Michael sitting next to her, Linc behind Michael along an area that didn’t quite qualify as a seat but was large enough to put someone if they held their legs up. Linc put his legs on the seat next to him and Lisa climbed in the driver’s seat. “We good to go?” she said and pulled out of the spot and onto the highway. 

Two hours and a Meatloaf album later, Lisa pulled into a truck stop just off I-29. “Alright, boys. Get out and stretch your legs. _Lenny_ ,” she nodded at Michael, “You come with me.”

Michael nodded, sliding out of the car of the truck. They walked into the rest stop. 

Michael saw the flyer with their pictures on it and started to tense up. “Lisa, they’ve got pictures.”

Lisa grabbed his upper arm and dug her nails in. “Don’t you dare get nervous, Lenny. There’s no need to and it’ll just attract attention. Now go get me a coffee. If anyone asks if they know you, you just drawl ‘no, ma’am, just a trucker on the road with my sister.’ Understood?” 

He nodded, feeling her finger dig deeper. She let go and walked up to the counter. “Hi there. How are you today?” he heard her say in a deep drawl. “Was wondering if we might use your bathroom? We been on the road a while, my brother and me. Going up to North Dakota to drop off a delivery. And gosh, I can’t wait to get there so I can rest my feet and shower.”

Michael went to go find the coffee machine and get Lisa a coffee.

“You a trucker?”

“Yes, sir. Originally from Nashville, but we’re going to be staying with a friend up there, picking up our next delivery and driving it back.”

“You and your brother both truckers?”

“Yes, sir. Our daddy’s got himself arrested, and Lenny, he been raising me ever.”

“Well, good luck with the rest of the drive. Here’s the keys to the rest room.”

“Thank you kindly,” Lisa said, taking the keys. 

She walked them over to Michael. “You got my coffee?” 

“Yes,” he nodded. 

“Okay. Here’re the keys. Go do your business. Then get two more coffees however you typically like them. I’ll be outside filling up the truck.”

He nodded at her, went into the bathroom. Outside he could hear her saying, “Gave my brother the keys. Just the coffee and gas for now. Though he may want some other stuff.” There was the sound of a register then of a door opening and closing. He came back out and prepared a cup of coffee for Linc and one for him and came up to the register to pay.

“You’re that nice sweetheart’s brother?” the older man behind the register said. 

Michael tipped his head and took a deep breath. “Yes. She’s my younger sister.”

The cashier leaned over to him so that he was all but staring down Michael’s face. The man glared. Michael felt his heart stop, certain he had been identified. The cashier, however, said to him in hushed tones, “What kinda life is it to take your kid sister out on the road with you?” 

“She wanted to, and it’s never been my place to stand in her way. Besides, she drives better than me.”

The man kept studying him then pulled back, a frown on his face saying what he thought of that. “Well, you take care of her, you hear?”

“Yes, sir. I always have,” Michael tipped his head again, thinking about how Linc had always kept an eye on him while he was growing up and that was before the money which had gotten them into this mess in the first place.

“She already bought coffee,” the cashier commented when he reached into his pocket for money.

Michael stopped with his hand on his pocket, mind working out how to make it seem like he did not know. “Did she? Shoot. Yes, I must have forgotten. Well, I already poured it. I’ll buy it anyway.”

The cashier laughed. “Eh, just take it. On the house, young man.”

“Thank you, sir,” Michael took both cups of coffee and went back to the truck.

Lisa was standing there with Linc, who was holding the gas. She nodded at Linc and said, “Back in the cab with you, _Mick_. Still back seat.” She nodded at Michael. “Lenny, you got the gas.”

Linc climbed into the cab. Michael grabbed the gas lever and filled it up the rest of the way. Lisa sipped her coffee, leaned against the door of the cab. “Alright. Into the truck with you.”

Michael nodded and climbed back into the truck. Lisa went to go pay.

“What is this?” Linc said.

Michael said, “When she gets back we’ll ask, but I think it’s working. The man in there didn’t recognize me at all.”

Linc nodded. “You sure?”

Michael nodded. 

“Huh,” Linc replied. 

Lisa came back out and climbed into the driver’s seat and pulled onto the I-29 again. There were fewer cars on the road, one or two a ways back and a couple motorcycles. “What was the meaning of that back there?” Linc asked.

“It convinced that cashier back there that me and my brother are truckers heading all the way up to North Dakota on I-29 where we will stay with a friend and pick up another delivery and drive it to where it needs to go, which is not Utah. However, keep an eye out for signs saying I-80, which goes all the way to Utah.”

Michael nodded. “So misdirection then?”

Lisa inclined her head. “Also, any mention of siblings will call up trucker siblings, not the two of you. So he won’t report us.”

Linc laughed. “How many times have you had to do this?”

Lisa smirked at him. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Hey I was involved with criminal stuff before this whole mess with the President’s brother started.”

Lisa gave him a pitying look. “You weren’t a very good criminal then.”

Michael tipped his head. 

Linc gestured at him. “And now you’re turning my brother into a criminal.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “Do you want to get to Utah and then to wherever you’re going or not?”

Michael pointed. “I-80.”

Lisa looked up. “Ahh, okay, off to the right then.” 

She took the exit then reached over to a bag she had. “Now, I have a spare change of clothes. I would like both of you to change into them. When we get off next stop, you will be my brother,” she gestured at Linc, “And you will be his friend from college,” she gestured at Michael. “You attended community college in the state of Missouri. I am attending the same college now.”

Linc changed first into a zip-front red over-shirt and jeans. Then he and Michael changed places and Michael changed into a black turtleneck, which among other things made him look a look more like Len. “You look like Snart,” Linc commented.

Michael turned to Lisa, who shrugged. “Well, where do you think I got those clothes?”

Linc looked down at the over-shirt, a red job with four C’s on it. “Mick wears college shirts?” 

Lisa shook her head. “No, we got him that for a job.”

Linc nodded and sat back. Lisa pulled off to the right first truck stop she saw. She took out a small bag and backed into a spot facing the woods. “Why are we stopping again?”

“License plate trick. Watch,” Lisa answered, pulled off her trucker uniform and got out of the truck. A couple minutes later she got back into the driver’s seat and handed Michael the bag. “Our old license plate. Store it somewhere out of sight.” Michael nodded and put it under the seat.

Once he had, she pulled back onto the highway. “Now there’s twelve hours on this road, so let me know if either of you have to use the bathroom or anything. Otherwise, we are driving through. You’re welcome to try to get some sleep.”

Linc had to admire her ability to drive straight through, provided someone kept her fueled with coffee. He looked at the cars and trucks following them, wondering which of them was Company and when they would eventually catch them in this cat and mouse game with two mice, an uncertain number of cats, and rats at every turn. He trusted Michael, and Lisa was doing her best, but it was only a matter of time until somebody slipped up, or didn’t believe them, then they were screwed. Plus, Michael should not have even been involved in this in the first place. He had done what he had done to keep Michael out of this life, put him through school, kept his record clean so he could get a job in a top architecture firm or whatever it was Michael did, and then he got himself arrested to get Linc out of trouble. Out of the corner of his eye just then in the rearview mirror when they came to the top of a rolling hill and could see miles back along the highway, he could have sworn he saw a glimpse of a lone motorcycle. He found that helped a lot. 

Towards 2am, Linc stopped at a rest stop out somewhere in Wyoming and gave Linc, back on duty after he had slept, a smile. “Can you drive a little?”

“Yeah, not a problem,” he said.

“Great.” She slipped into the passenger seat and he slid into the driver’s seat. “Wake me when we get to Evanston.”

Michael woke up shortly after that and kept Linc company until then. They pulled into a rest stop just outside Evanston just after dawn. All three climbed out bleary eyed and Lisa went in to get coffee with Linc. “I need to use the rest room,” she commented once they got halfway across the store, nodding at the register. His eyes fell across the Fox River Eight poster stapled to the desk. 

She walked closer to the register, turning to him as soon as they were in front of it and holding out an accusatory pointer finger. “You get coffee. And if you get the same shit as last time, I will kick your ass from here to Nana’s and she’ll kick it back. You know she will. You know how I like it. You’d better at least: you haven’t been out of the house that long. Just remember: no surprises, no sweet shit. And fix your roomie’s yourself. I don’t know how he likes it.” She turned back to the cashier who was chuckling at Linc’s dismay, but otherwise didn’t look up from whatever he was so fascinated with. “My brother here will get three coffees. And he’ll pay for it and the truck at pump five, which his roommate’s out filling up. If he tries to bring up sweet shit in mine, toss it at him.” 

The cashier handed over the keys without looking up from the tv. “Here’s keys, first door on your left.”

She walked into the back.

“Where’s the coffee?” Linc asked.

The cashier nodded at a machine. 

“You don’t got any sweet shit, do you? I try to give her mocha one time…”

“Nope.”

“Good.”

Linc prepped the coffees and walked up to the register with them and a couple breakfast bars. “Hey.”

“Hey,” said the cashier, still not looking up from his tv. 

“How much do I owe you?”

“Eh. You the truck at pump five?”

“Yeah.”

“Wait till your friend is done. I’ll let you know when.” The cashier tapped his tv. Linc stared at him, but the man didn’t look up from whatever program he was watching, so Linc went to browse junk food, allowing him to put an aisle between him and the cashier and poster. The cashier continued, “You hear about the escaped prisoners?” 

Linc froze. “Yeah, what about them?”

The cashier shrugged. “They say there’s a bounty on their heads. $100k each and $300k for Burrows.”

“Really? They got any idea where they are?”

The cashier looked up from the tv and grinned at Linc. “Nope.” Linc froze, but there was no recognition on the guy’s face.

Linc shrugged at the cashier, who still had the grin on his face. “Hopefully they find them soon. Although that’s unfortunate for anybody who looks like them.”

The cashier nodded. “Yeah. Tell your friend out there to be careful. You be careful too.”

Linc walked up to the cashier. “You think I’m him?” He tapped the mug shots that were hanging up alongside the register.

The cashier shrugged. “Hey, I’m an ex-offender myself. I’m sure as hell not reporting anybody. Don’t want to go through that again. And I can tell you are too.” Linc started to tense up to run. “But you don’t seem the type to do political assassinations. So nope, don’t think you’re him.” 

“Thanks, man.” 

The man tapped the screen. “Your friend’s done filling her up.”

“Yeah? How much I owe you?”

“Fifty for the gas. Plus the coffees, fifty three.”

Linc handed over sixty. 

The man handed back seven. “Keep safe, you hear?”

Linc nodded. “Will do.”

When they were back in the truck, Lisa driving, Michael sitting passenger seat, she shook her head. “Guy would have pegged you in a second.”

“How do you know?”

“The way he was staring at Michael on the cameras.”

“But you got him not to?” Michael asked.

“That was all Linc. The way you responded to me telling you I’d kick your ass wasn’t in the realm of someone he could see murdering the President’s brother.” Linc and Michael nodded.

“Thanks,” Linc said.

“You learn these things when travelling around with Lenny and Mick.”

A few minutes later, she turned off into another truck stop without a rest stop, and backed in again. “Okay. Change back into the UPS uniforms. Then, Michael, I want you to go change the license plate.”

They did, and she pulled back onto the road, and entered Utah. They passed through Salt Lake City. Then Lisa told Linc to switch places with her. She got into regular clothes with a four C’s t-shirt and had Michael get into a school team shirt. She told Linc to stay in the trucker uniform.

And into Tooele, Utah the truck drove.


	7. Utah

Once they were in town, Lisa said, “Alright, Michael. I got us here. You need to tell me where we’re headed.”

“The city municipal building should have the maps.”

Lisa pointed. “That one there?”

Michael nodded. “That one there.”

Lisa raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you know where it is?”

Michael tipped his head. “The Double K Ranch.”

“Linc.” She dug around in the bag she had been storing the license plates in, pulled out a hat and handed it to Linc. “Stay in the truck. Anyone asks, I’m making a delivery and we should be out of their way momentarily.” She turned to Michael, still holding the bag. “Alright, Michael. Lead the way.”

They got out of the truck and walked into the municipal building. The woman behind the counter looked up. Lisa handed Michael her bag and began pulling her hair up. Michael was watching her with a frown. The woman behind the counter cleared her throat. “May I help you?”

“Yes, we’re here to do a research project. Would you happen to know where the Double K Ranch is?”

\--

Outside, Linc saw a familiar person crossing the street, one who had escaped with the brothers and the one of them he had most hoped never to see again. He climbed out of the truck and shouted after the man, “You!”

The man looked up. Panic showed on his face as he registered Linc and then started running. Linc overtook him before he reached the other side and slammed him against a car. “What are you doing here?” Linc demanded.

“Wait, wait, wait. I can explain,” T-bag started. Linc pulled his arms further behind his back. “Now listen here, Linc the Sink. I think if I start yelling, you got a lot more to lose than I do. Correct me if I’m wrong.”

A call in Michael’s voice came up of, “Shit.” It sounded panicked. Linc realized they must have found the empty truck. “Linc!” that sounded even more panicked. He wondered how quickly Michael would come up with a completely unnecessary plan if he thought Linc had been captured and decided not to chance it. 

“Over here!” Linc yelled. Michael saw him and ran across the street, Lisa tailing closely behind.

“Where’s the map, Bagwell?” Michael demanded.

“Give us the map, T-bag!” Linc shoved him against the car again.

“I would give to you, Pretty, but I don’t have it. And ooh, who is that beautiful young thing you’re…?”

Lisa pulled a gun out of the bag and aimed it at T-bag’s head. “I’ve met your type before. I’ve had the pleasure of killing your type before. Give me one excuse, one, and I will wipe that slimy smirk off your face. Now where’s the map?”

“Yes, ma’am. I was just making small talk with Lincoln and Michael-.”

Lisa pulled the trigger. Out of her gun came a gold stream that hit T-bag’s bad wrist. He screamed. Linc backed up, not quite having thought she would pulled the trigger. Michael jumped, too, until he saw what had fired from the gun, and then he turned to Lisa to gape at her. 

T-bag shouted, “You shot me, you bitch!” 

“Yeah, it wasn’t anything vital. Now do you want to see your entire body covered in gold?”

“You’re even more nuts than Linc here was when he got his nickname.” Lisa revved her gun again. “I’ll get the map! I’ll get the map!” T-bag shouted. “Tweener has it.”

“Why would David be here?” Michael asked.

“Uh, Tweener and I met up in town and he is also working with me.”

“Really? Why? I thought he would have put as much distance between himself and your rapist ass as possible.” Linc commented.

“We ran into each other in town. He was apparently also on his way to the ranch.”

Linc and Michael met eyes, both wondering who else was on their way to the money and whether others would be able to find it.

“Where is he?” Michael said.

“In the garden store on Main Street.”

“Okay, march,” Linc said. T-bag took a look at Linc, a glance at Lisa, started leading the way.

Michael fell back to Lisa. “May I see your gun?” 

Lisa raised her eyebrows, but flipped the gun around and offered it butt first to Michael. “Before you get any ideas, I’m giving you the same warning I gave to my brother: disassemble it, and I shoot you.”

Michael nodded. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” He took the gun and examined it. “Does it actually fire gold?”

Lisa shook her head. “Fake gold. Cisco designed it for me with an easily refillable cartridge. And gold, while it would be sweet, is not easily refillable.”

Michael smiled. “Very practical.”

“Or so he said. I think he likes to forget that I’m a Snart sometimes, and am involved with my brother’s heists. I could refill it with gold a lot easier than he likes.”

Michael laughed. “Would you ever think of doing anything else?”

Lisa turned to him and scoffed. “Lenny put me through school and through figure skating training and competitions to make sure I could do as I like. Like Linc did for you, it sounds like.”

Michael tipped his head. “Yes. Although he told me it was my half of the insurance money when he gave it to me.” 

“Insurance money?”

Michael sighed. “Our mother died when I was eleven and Linc was fifteen. Linc said she had taken out life insurance. It turned out she hadn’t.”

Lisa bowed her head.

Michael decided to change the subject. “What did you go to school to be?”

Lisa shrugged. “Mechanical engineer.”

Michael laughed. “Really?”

Lisa nodded. “Mmmhmm. Recently graduated too.”

“Tweener!” they heard T-bag yell.

“Hey, let me know if you need any help with him.” Lisa nodded at T-bag. “I’ve done a few jobs with people like that. They aren’t kidding around.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.”

They heard a yell come from inside the garden shop. It sounded like Tweener. 

“Linc,” Michael said, eying the store.

Lisa stepped forward. “I’m going too.” She turned to Linc. “Play along if you know what’s good for you.”

Michael nodded.

“You stay out here.” Linc pointed at T-bag.

When they entered the store, Lisa and Linc stopped at the sight of Tweener in a headlock. Lisa shifted postures. “Oh good God, David. What have you gotten yourself involved in now?” 

“Wha…?” The guy holding Tweener in a headlock turned and released him. Tweener put as much distance between himself and the guy as possible.

Lisa turned to him and began lecturing. “David, what have you done now?” 

“Who…?”

Linc moved close and patted him on the back. “Play along,” he whispered.

“Ok,” Tweener returned.

“Do you know this man, ma’am?” the guy said.

“Yeah. He’s my cousin, from out of state. Son of a gun only just found out he’s got relatives on this side of his family, so he was shipped out here for a summer of hard work. Wasn’t that what your ma said?”

The store owner narrowed his eyes. “He said he was staying with grandpa.”

“On his grandpa’s ranch. Out of town a ways. Granddaddy recently fell ill. Bet he didn’t know the name, did ya?”

The man licked his lips, glancing at Linc as though considering going for his gun. “And who’s he?” He nodded at Linc.

“This?” Lisa nodded at him as well. “This is my husband. We been married a year in August. Trying for a little one, aren’t we, sweetie?” She took his hand and laced her fingers together with his. He let her, but gave the man a momentary expression of being trapped.

The suspicion was gone from his face as he grinned at them both. “Congratulations.” Linc had to hand it to Lisa: she knew how to tell a story.

“Thank you.” Linc shook his hand with his free one.

“We run a landscaping company, and David here forgot to bring the shovels. Would you happen to have any?”

He laughed. “What kind of idiot forgets the shovels?”

Lisa rolled her eyes and pointed her thumb at Tweener. “My cousin.”

“Right this way, ma’am.” 

Lisa came back with the shovels and told Linc to get out money to pay for them. “And I don’t suppose you’d know anything about the old Double K ranch?”

The man made a face. “Why do you want to know about that?”

“Gramps said the place we was going used to be the Double K, actually with an expression similar to the one you got on your face now.”

“Used to be Karl Kokosing’s ranch,” the man grimaced.

“Used to be?” Linc asked.

“Now it’s a development. Pop up housing.”

“Shit,” Linc swore under his breath. 

“Language, honey,” Lisa said.

“We was told it was the house by where the silo used to be. Your gramps.” He rolled his eyes.

“I can help you out with that.” He pulled out a map. “Here’s the new map.” 

Lisa took it. “Thank you. And do you know where the silo used to be?”

“I think I got an old map in the back.” 

“I’m gonna send them on to get the truck. Mick, you and David go get the truck. Meet me out front.”

They left. Outside, T-bag was glaring at Michael from where he was sitting on the bench. Michael had Lisa’s gun trained on him and was holding a piece of paper. “Bad news, Michael. The Double K ranch has been replaced by a new development.”

“That is bad. I think I can figure out where it is from this map though.”

Linc glared at T-bag. “Pretty there tried to shoot me,” T-bag protested.

“I’m gonna shoot you if you don’t shut up,” Linc commented.

“Yes, sir,” T-bag said.

“I shot the ground next to him,” Michael said, nodding at a patch of gold on the ground.

“Lisa’s inside getting an old map to line up against the new map.”

“That will be helpful.”

“I’m gonna get the truck. Tweener’s coming with me.”

Michael nodded.

“Hi guys,” Tweener greeted.

“David,” Michael said.

“I don’t see why you two trust him more than me,” T-bag protested. “Out of all of us, only one of us has proved disloyal.”

“Did I say you could talk?” Linc said.

“Out of all of us, only one of us has killed and raped multiple people,” Michael said. He turned to Linc. “Lisa has a point. Go get the truck. I’ll wait here with Bagwell.”

Linc and Tweener went to go get the truck. Lisa came out a few minutes later. “Found out approximately where the silo is.”

When they were all in the truck again, they drove to where the ranch used to be, turning up the road for the development and stopping. Lisa and Michael surveyed the new map and the old map. “Do you know exactly which house it is?” 

She shook her head.

Michael stared out at the development. 

“How are we gonna find it, Michael?” Linc asked.

“The trees. All of them are new except those two. And that one’s in the right place. It should be under that garage.”

Lisa nodded. “What’s your plan for getting in?”

“Let’s see if there’s anybody there,” Michael said.

“And if there is?” 

Michael paused, thinking. 

Lisa sighed. “Have any of you actually done any jobs before?”

Linc shrugged. Michael did too. Tweener approached, probably aiming to say something smooth, cut off with Lisa’s hand in his face. He stopped. She pointed at Linc and Michael. “You, I trust. You, well let’s put it this way, do you have a story?” 

Michael nodded. “We could do construction crew.”

She inclined her head. “Good. Then you need to use it throughout.”

“So I’ve gathered.”

“Great, let’s drive the truck over. Construction crew it is.”

A woman came out of the house then, leaned over to get the paper, and went back in.

“Well, there is a woman in the house. Any smart plans for how to get in?”

“We need to shut off her electricity,” Linc suggested.

“You know how to do that?” Michael asked.

“Yep. Come on.” He led them to an electric box and popped in open then unscrewed a cable from it.

Michael stared at his brother. “Where’d you learn about electricity?”

“We use to steal copper wires. Sell them on the docks. When you were at school, of course.”

The sounds of the tv in the house died.

“So Linc has pulled jobs before,” Lisa observed.

“Yeah, just low key stuff though.”

“Who are you, hot stuff?” Tweener asked.

Linc gaped at him. T-bag raised an eyebrow. Michael just turned to Lisa to watch.

Lisa looked him up and down and smiled as though amused. “Hun, I’m way above your paygrade, so I suggest you don’t try it.”

“Aww. Come on.”

Lisa ignored him and instead turned to Michael and Linc. “Electricity’s out. What’s the next plan?”

“You have uniforms or things that look enough like construction crew clothing?” Michael asked.

“Yes.”

“Good. Let’s all put them on.”

They did. Michael knocked on the door.

The woman came to the door. 

Michael put on his best smile. “Good day, ma’am. We are with the construction crew working over a block away and we might have blown a fuse. We traced it to here and we would like to fix it, free of charge. Could we do that?”

She looked at them. “Alright. Where is this power fuse?”

“It will probably be in your garage, ma’am.”

The woman smiled at him and moved out of the way. “Right this way.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Linc nodded at her as he went past. She smiled at him. T-bag smiled at her. Tweener looked straight ahead. Lisa nodded at her and they shared a smile. She led them to the garage. Linc closed the door behind them. 

As soon as the door was closed, Michael pulled out the shovels and they started digging into the concrete. 

A short while later, the woman opened the door to the garage again. “Do you need anything? Any lemonade?”

Lisa smiled at her interrupted. “That would be lovely, ma’am. Do you need any help getting it?”

“That would be lovely.”

Lisa turned back to Michael, nodded, and left with the woman. 

As soon as the door was closed, T-bag said, “She’s pretty, Scofield. Though, I thought you had the hots for the prison doc.”

“T-bag, one more word out of you, and I’ll have her shoot you again with her gun.”

“Yes, sir. I didn’t mean nothing by it.”

The door to the outside opened. All of them snapped their eyes over to it, T-bag darting to one side of the door, Linc darting to the other side with a shovel. 

Sucre and C-Note walked in. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” Linc asked.

“Well, look like it’s one big Fox River reunion,” T-bag commented.

Michael climbed up from the hole. “Well as always, C-Note, your timing is flawless.”

C-Note frowned, taken aback. “I don't follow.”

Michael sighed. “We're trying to run something here, and we can't have people walking in off the street.”

C-Note laughed. “Oh. So you want us to leave and then you can just mail us the check?”

Michael approached Sucre. “Hi Sucre, I know you trust me and you know I'll cut you in on that money but the two of you being here right now jeopardizes everything.” 

Sucre shook his head, “I'm not going nowhere. I want my share of the money. ‘Sides, what are you doing with them?” He nodded at Tweener and T-bag.

“They met up with us in town. But now we’re running it, and you need to be out of here for it to be successful.”

“No go, Snowflake,” C-Note shook his head.

The door to the house opened then and Lisa and the woman came in with Lisa saying, “Well, Jeanette, it’s real interesting. I’ll take your advice into account.” She trailed off, seeing the additional two people.

“Well hello, boys. Did the construction company send over additional folks?” she said before Jeanette could open her mouth.

Michael answered before anyone else could, “Yes Lisa. They did. Apparently someone else called over and they sent an additional team.”

Jeanette saw the hole. “Are you boys going to clean up my garage?”

Michael nodded. “Yes, ma’am. We will. We’re almost to the connection then we will switch it on and resurface your garage.”

Jeanette scowled at the men in her garage. Linc gave her a sheepish expression. Sucre looked at his feet. C-Note nodded at her. T-bag smiled. 

“Well, if I can give them the lemonade, I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Lisa said, handing Linc and Michael two of the glasses in her hands, “Just an hour more and we’ll be out of your hair. Unfortunately, with the amount of concrete dust we’ll be generating, we’re probably going to need to put on masks soon.”

“You better be out of here soon,” Jeanette said, but she handed Lisa the next two glasses when she held up her hands for them. 

“We will be, ma’am,” Michael agreed. She looked around the room, gave Linc a once over with her eyes and a flirtatious smile, and headed back out.

Lisa grabbed C-Note by the shirt and shoved him against the wall. “Are you a moron? Why would you interrupt a job like that if you want it to go off successfully?” she hissed at him.

“Who the heck are you?” C-Note looked at her then over at Michael for an answer.

Michael pulled himself out of the hole completely and stood. “C-Note, Sucre, meet Lisa Snart.” 

“She another part of your plan, Papi?” Sucre asked.

Michael shook his head. “No, Sucre, it was a long story about how we met.” 

Lisa smiled at him. “He came into my city and our local superhero mistook him for someone else, till he and Linc convinced the superhero’s team that he wasn’t.”

C-Note asked, “Local superhero? Where are you from?”

Lisa shrugged. “Somewhere between here and Chicago.”

C-Note inclined his head. “You don’t want to talk about it. Got it.”

Lisa inclined her head in reply. “What I would like to talk about is how you found you way here.”

C-Note glanced at Michael and Linc. “We were all in the room when Westmoreland told Fish there that the money was in Utah on the Double K Ranch.”

Lisa nodded. “And you didn’t stop by the municipal building?”

C-Note shook his head. “No, I looked at the Army site online.”

Michael glanced at Lisa then at Sucre. Linc pulled himself out of the hole. “Lisa, you have a point. Sucre, what did they do with your cousin?”

Sucre shook his head. “They would have questioned him.”

Michael nodded. “Think he would have told about the Double K Ranch?”

C-Note slapped his palms against his pants. 

Linc said, “Fuck.” 

Sucre sighed. 

T-bag started saying, “See this is why you can’t trust…”

“You got something to say, T-bag?” C-Note walked over to glower at him.

T-bag shook his head.

Tweener looked from one face to the other. “Wait? What does that mean?”

Linc took off his hat and rub his head. “It means they have all the information to find where this place is and are probably on their way here now.”

“Well what do we do, man?” Tweener said. “I can’t go back in there.”

Sucre added, “I can’t either. Even if my girl Maricruz is marrying Hector.”

Linc turned to both of them. “You think I want to go back there? I was on death row!”

T-bag interrupted, “I think we can all agree we don’t want to go back.”

Michael interrupted, “We continue to dig out the money. Then we split up and go our separate ways. Lisa, can you go find out if we have a trail?” Linc nodded in agreement.

Lisa inclined her head.

Sucre asked, “What’s up?”

Michael answered, “We have a friend who is watching for trails on us.”

C-Note nodded, sizing up Michael again.

“If you’ll excuse me.” Lisa stepped outside and pulled out her phone. When she got Len on the phone she said, “Hi, dearest brother. We got a problem, which is to say the entire plan could be blown. We’re in the foundation now. But if you could you go check where the nearest FBI agency is and how much they know about various locations of various buildings?”

“Got it, Lise. How’re they doing?”

“An extra two teams showed up, that’s all, but everyone seems to be getting along alright.”

“Will it affect our cut?”

“Possibly.”

“Damn. I’ll check Salt Lake City for the nearest branch.”

“Do that. Oh and dearest brother?”

“Yes, sis?”

“I assume I don’t need to tell you to be careful.”

“You too.”

They hung up. Lisa went back inside. C-Note and Linc were in the hole digging. Michael and T-bag looked up as she entered, T-bag lounging against the wall.

“Well there, missy. Did you find out what you wanted out of your friend?” T-bag asked.

Lisa narrowed her eyes and turned to him, sizing him up. “You aren’t part of the planning so why don’t you get in there and carry your own weight?” 

“I’m not because I can’t, little miss. Ever since Pretty and his fellow escapees cut off my hand, or didn’t he tell you that when you signed up with him?”

Lisa sneered at him. “Did you try to put it somewhere it wasn’t wanted, Bagwell?” She turned, dismissing him from her attention, and walked to Michael. T-bag walked over to a box and sat down on it.

“How’d it go?” 

“He’s going to check out what they know in Salt Lake City.”

Michael nodded. 

“Hey, did you know that Hamachi isn’t Yellowtail tuna, but a fish called a yellowtail amberjack?”

Linc and C-Note turned to him from where they were digging. “What the hell is Hamachi?”

“It’s sushi, Sink, but you wouldn’t know that would you, having spent most of your adult life in and out of prisons.”

“You know what? I’ve had enough crap out of your mouth…” Linc scrambled out of the hole towards T-bag. 

“Hey! Stop it!” Michael shouted.

“You, hands off. You, just shut up,” Lisa pointed at Linc then at T-bag. 

“Hey, Sink, I’ll do a little,” Sucre said. 

Linc nodded and went to go get a drink from a hose just outside, passing by Tweener. “Tweener, get in there and spell C-Note.”

Tweener nodded and helped C-Note out of the hole.

As Linc and C-Note were coming back in, a loud clink of metal against something hard sounded. “Hey guys!” Sucre called out. “We hit something. Come take a look.”

\--

Leonard Snart rode Lisa’s motorcycle into Salt Lake City, stopped at a library to look up the address of the FBI regional office. He found it with only a few minutes of searching, then called, pretending to be a competing janitor service, to find out the name of their janitor service. Once obtained, with the address of their janitor service gathered from a quick search online, he left the library, swung over by the janitors, and grabbed a janitor uniform with a hat and an ID, a 5 gallon bucket and a mop off the back of one of their trucks.

He then drove over to the FBI office, got into the uniform and approached the security desk. “Hi, sir. My company said one of the restrooms in the building has flooded. I can take care of that and be out of your hair in a jiffy.”

The guard looked up only long enough to see the uniform. “ID,” he said. 

Len handed over the ID that he had grabbed along with the uniform. The guard typed the name in – a Frank Xavier. As he did so, Len said, “So, they having any luck in finding the Fox River criminals?”

The guard laughed, “You think they tell me that?”

“Surely you must have heard something. Least more than the news networks.”

“Why are you so interested?”

“They sound dangerous. I want them caught as much as the next person,” Len answered. “Also, it’s like the reality tv my sister watches only better.”

The guard laughed, “Well, we got an agent in from headquarters. Supposedly, they’re out here somewhere.”

“How’d they manage that?”

“They’re tricky. Supposedly the leader of it is the brother of the guy who killed the President’s brother. He’s clever.”

“Huh. Not more clever than the FBI surely?”

“No. The guy we got from headquarters – Agent Mahone is his name – he’s good. Though why he wants the old DB Cooper case is anyone’s guess.”

“DB Cooper. Wasn’t he the guy who disappeared on a plane with that money that they keep making shows about?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, wish Agent Mahone luck. Me, I better go clean the toilet mess.”

“Yeah, go on through, Mr. Xavier.”

“Thanks.”

He checked the building when he got in, just in case, and found that even though Mahone’s name was not on it (he had not been expecting it to be, but one never knows), the Regional Director was. He carried his bucket and mop up to that floor. A woman in a suit got it to the elevator and smiled at him. He smiled back. He got off on the floor where the Regional Head was. She put her foot in the door before it could close and grabbed his wrist. Her grip was firm.

“Are you Michael Scofield?” she asked.

He thickened his drawl. “Miss, I can assure you, if I was this Scofield guy, I wouldn’t be wearing this uniform getting calls about a clogged toilet.” 

She scanned his face and, he realized, was pressing her fingers against his wrist to monitor whether his heartrate jumped. No nervousness or lies then.

“Where are you from?” she asked.

“Originally, from Central City. Still got the accent. Came out here for work when my sister came out.” His heartrate had not budged at all.

Her eyes narrowed, but she released him. “Fine. Don’t keep that clogged toilet waiting.”

He nodded, then looked both ways in the hall and wrinkled his nose. “Could you tell me where it is on this floor?” He gestured in either direction, looking sheepish.

She laughed, face lightening. “It’s that way.” She pointed.

He touched his hat. “Thank you, Miss. Best of luck finding these guys.”

She tipped her head. The elevator door closed. He started heading down the hall toward the bathroom, stepped in, waited until someone came in, and then stepped back out. Then he walked up the hall to the janitor closet, got out a janitor cart and pushed that over to the Regional Director’s office, where Agent Mahone would no doubt be. 

He saw a man in an unbuttoned suit jacket who looked strung out on something in the conference room next to the Regional Director’s office, and kept his head down under his hat as he examined him. There was a trash bin in there that allowed him to get close enough when picking it up and emptying it to get a closer look. Neither the Regional Director nor the other man looked over at him at all.

The man wore a badge that said Agent Mahone. He had a file in his hand and was demanding all the information on the DB Cooper case. The Regional Director expressed surprise. Mahone told him that Scofield and others of the Fox River Eight were going to find where they thought that money was. The Regional Director told him that they still had men who had been involved with that investigation but had never found anything. Mahone demanded the name and they called for the man who had been on the investigation. 

Len took out toilet paper from the cart and went to put a roll in each bathroom while the man came up. When the elevator door opened and an older man got off, he went back to the cart. 

The man informed Mahone and the Regional Director that they had interviewed a young man at a gas station a ways outside of Salt Lake City. 

“Great,” Mahone said, opening the file. “Did you notice he lied? He said once that he met Westmoreland at 7am and once that he met him at 7pm. Let’s go see which it was. With that and his tattoo, we should be able to find out where they are.”

That said, Mahone, the older man and the Regional Director walked out of the conference room. Len ducked his head down again and pushed the cart back to the janitor’s closet, then took the next elevator down.

In the janitor closet, he picked up his cell and called his sister. “Emergency. They’re getting closer to Tooele and they know about the tattoo.”

“Shit,” Lisa said. 

“You almost out of there?” 

“We’re got the money all packed away and are covering the garage floor now.”

“Great. Then get out of there.”

“Sure thing.” They hung up.

Len pulled off the uniform and tossed them and the ID in the bucket, which he left inside the janitor closet outside the security gates in the lobby. He threw on his sunglasses and walked out of the building. They were just getting into a car when he swung his leg over Lisa’s motorcycle. He allowed them a head start then followed. 

\--

“Okay, boys, time to hurry it up and get going. They know about Tooele, and Michael, they know about the tattoo. I’d say everything on there is suspect.”

“Damnit!” Linc tossed his hat to the ground.

“A few more minutes, then we can go.” Michael gestured at the backpacks, the big one where they had put a majority of the money, and the smaller ones where they had put around $10,000 each.

“Just finish the floor then we have to leave.” 

They heard a car pulled up to the house. Lisa looked out the door and froze. “It’s a cop.”

“Shit!” C-Note swore.

“What do we do?” Tweener said.

Lisa watched as the cop came up to the door and opened it. A call of, “Mom?” could be heard inside the house.

“Jeanette has a police officer for a daughter,” T-bag observed, putting down one of the magazines he had been stacking on his lap which he had found somewhere in the garage and had been reading from to annoy those who were digging.

Michael gave a slight nod. Sucre’s eyes darted to him and he gave a slight nod back.

Sucre pulled a gun on all of them. 

“What the hell, Sucre?” Michael shouted. 

“Everybody to the floor! Now!” Sucre aimed the gun at C-note, at Tweener, at Michael, at T-Bag and at Linc. 

She eyed Michael, who got to the floor as quickly as possible. He met her eyes and gave a slight smile then eyed T-Bag, Tweener, and C-Note. She understood: the plan was to get Sucre to take the money and follow him.

She got to the floor as well.

Sucre grabbed the backpack and still aiming the gun at them, exited the garage door. 

After Sure exited, Michael got to his feet again and kicked something, running his hands over his head. “Fuck!” he shouted. 

“So much for the money, huh, Snowflake,” C-note said.

“We still got the money in our individual packs. I suggest that we don’t wait till the floor is dry and go. The cop is likely to recognize us.” 

“We can try to track Sucre from the truck,” Lisa said.

Michael nodded. “We should all split up to look, and to make it harder for them to track us.”

“Yeah, Pretty. Guess this plan didn’t work out as well as you’d thought,” T-bag said. “I’m leaving first.” He pulled a gun out of his bag and aimed it at Michael. 

Michael put up his hands, nodded at T-bag. T-bag took his pack and left. Then Michael got up and handed C-Note a bag with around $10,000 in it. “My apologies, C-Note. If any of us gets the money, or needs to communicate, there’s a website, europeangoldfinch.net, which is a chat room.”

C-Note nodded, hugged Michael and Linc and headed out. Tweener gestured at a backpack. Michael threw one at him. “Get out of here.”

Tweener nodded and left, leaving Lisa, Linc and Michael behind. “We had best get out of here too.” He nodded at the house.

Lisa nodded and grabbed their packs. 

Linc grabbed his brother and shoved him against the wall. “What the hell, Michael? I thought you trusted that guy!”

Michael nodded. “We’ll meet up just out of town.”

“Wait? This was part of your plan?” Linc shouted.

“Made on the spot, but yes, I handed him a note while we were digging. That way, Leonard, Lisa and Mick get their ten percent, and of the remainder, we get seventy percent and Sucre gets thirty.”

Linc released Michael and turned to Lisa. “Did you know about this?”

“Not till it was ongoing, but it was similar enough to something Lenny and Mick pulled that I played along.”

Linc gestured at Michael. “Next time, give me some hint.”

Michael tipped his head. “If the situation allows for it, I will. Now, I’m going to meet up with Sucre. You two meet us with the truck.”

Lisa nodded at them, “You two go reconnect her power and then get in the truck. I’m going to tell Jeanette we finished her garage.”

Michael and Linc nodded and got into the truck. Lisa stuck her head into the house. “Hi, ma’am. Oh, I didn’t know you had company!”

“Who’s this, Mom?” said the cop.

“Construction company from up the road. We traced a cable that went out while we were working to under your garage, dug it up, replaced it and resurfaced your garage. You should have power again in five minutes.”

The cop narrowed her eyes. “And how much will that cost?”

“We did it for free. We’re not sure it wasn’t our fault the cable went out in the first place. You should be back up and running, but just in case, feel free to call the construction company.”

“I’m going to go check on the garage to make sure nothing’s missing,” said the cop.

“Yes, ma’am.”

At that moment, the power came back on. “See what did I tell you?”

“Thank you.”

“We’re going home now, but if you need anything, don’t hesitate to give us a call,” Lisa added, digging around in her construction uniform before coming up with a business card for a construction company. “Have a good day.”

She met Michael and Linc in the truck.

Lisa pulled out a box and put it on the dashboard. “What’s that?” Linc asked.

“Police radio. Lenny, Mick and I use it to track where the cops are. I figured it’d be useful now.”

Michael nodded. “Very useful.”

Lisa turned it on. “Car 94, go check if the missing car belongs to the college girl.”

“What’s car 72 doing?”

“Car 72 has been put on the Fox River case. FBI wants to check out the DB Cooper case.”

“Again? Why?”

“Apparently that’s what the Fox River Eight are headed toward.”

“They found it?”

“They think they have.”

“Good for them! Sorry, sir, but it’d be good to know someone’s solved it.”

“Just go check on the car, Simpson.”

The police radio went quiet. Lis asked, “Do you want to find out what the FBI agent knows?”

“Is that possible?”

“Jeanette’s cop had a picture in front of a cop car with the number 82, and that’s the number on the cop car. However, it’ll give them our voices and tell them we were listening in, so they won’t use the radio anymore.”

“And they won’t know we’re here if we just listen?”

“No. Not at all.”

“Let’s just listen in as observers then.”

Lisa nodded. “Turn on the truck radio too in that case. We want to hear everything about where they think we are.”

Linc did. 

“More news in the Fox River case. Lincoln Burrows Junior, the son of Lincoln Burrows. He was arrested in connection with a double homicide, but is being released due to the disappearance of blood and fingerprint evidence.”

“That’s my son!” Linc turned up the volume on the radio. “He’s being released. We gotta go get him.”

Lisa grabbed him. “We ain’t going without a plan.”

“Linc, that’s just what they want.”

Linc shook her off. “You don’t understand. That’s my son! That’s LJ!”

“Yes, I do understand, Linc. But we don’t have time for this now!”

Lisa reached over and grabbed his jacket, pulling him close and looking into his eyes. “Listen, you idiot! He was released because they’re hoping to lure you out. Understood? And I’m not saying we can’t get him. Yeah?” Linc licked his lip. “We just gotta get him with a plan. Do you understand?” Linc nodded. Lisa sighed and let go of him. “Okay. First. We get… Sucre, I believe his name is?”

“Sucre.” Michael nodded.

“Then we get Lincoln Burrows Junior.”

“LJ.”

“LJ.”

“Understood?”

Linc nodded. “But we aren’t going to get LJ ourselves. We’re going to call in a few favors. Now, where is he?”

Michael nodded. “Arizona.”

Lisa sighed. “Lenny has a contact there.”

Michael said, “Are you sure?”

Lisa pulled out her phone. “He owes us big time. He’ll do it.” She opened it. “Out of the house. Calling Charles Moran. Kid of a passenger of ours was just released from custody. In Arizona. How many favors can I use, dearest brother? Ok. Great. Ugh. Good luck with that then. Oh? On what? Well, let us know if what he’s on proves useful.” 

She hung up. “Lenny says the agent – Mahone – is apparently strung out on something. He thinks it’s a downer of some variety and is going to find out more. Now I’m going to call our contact.”

“Charlie. How are you? You want to pay up? Listen very closely. Kid of a… passenger of ours was just released from custody. Course that’s what I mean. He’s in Arizona. Name of LJ. Yes. Wouldn’t you like to know? Alright. Meet at the diner. You know the one. Don’t disappoint me.”

Linc stared at her. “What did he owe you?”

“He was an idiot and almost made a job go pear shaped. My brother was in a good mood that day and let him live. Also, he didn’t make things go unfixably wrong.”

“Your brother kills people?” Michael asked.

“Does it bother you?”

“Yes,” Michael answered.

“Don’t worry about it. He tries not to kill innocents, if at all possible.”

“Still,” Linc said.

“If it disturbs you so much, you’re welcome to get out. Besides, he agreed not to recently and has been good about keeping his word.” 

Michael nodded and met Linc’s eyes. “If it helps us get LJ,” Linc said.

“But first let’s meet up with Sucre.”

“Fine. Tell me where you agreed to meet him.”

\--

Sucre met up with them in a woods just outside of Tooele. “Hi, Sucre. Need a lift?” Michael said as they leaned out of the truck.

Sucre stopped and turned to smile at the truck. “Hi, Papi. Hi Sink.”

“Don’t just gape at the truck. Get in,” Lisa said. Sucre nodded at her and climbed in.

“Hi. I’m Fernando Sucre.”

“Lisa Snart.”

“My cousin’s bike is back there a ways.” 

“Fine. We’ll go get it. But first, let me see the money.”

Sucre’s eyes snapped to Michael.

“I agree to give her ten percent.”

Sucre nodded and opened the bag, to reveal National Geographic magazines, the same as the ones T-bag had been reading from earlier. “What the…?”

Linc saw them and frowned. “What are those?”

Lisa stopped and looked over at them. “Shit.” She picked up the one on top. “That creep! T-bag?”

“T-bag,” Sucre agreed.

“Damnit,” Michael swore. 

“What are we going to do now, Michael?” Linc said. “Should have killed him when I had the chance.”

Lisa flipped open her phone. “Lenny, there’s a problem. Blond haired guy with one hand and a backpack has the money. He won’t be far from Tooele. Yeah. He’s a creeper too. No, on foot. Yeah, he reminds me of Tyler. Yep, that type. He’s got a blue backpack. The big backpack. Scrawny guy, paisley shirt. Yes. Thank you, Lenny.”

He turned back to the three in her truck. “I put a tracking device in the bags. Lenny will track him down. You didn’t have any attachment to him, right?”

\--

T-bag was just getting in the car he had driven from Illinois in, at the motel on the outskirts of Tooele, when a man in sunglasses and a blue parka pulled a motorcycle in beside his car. The man turned to survey him, got off his bike and walked over to the car, taking off his sunglasses as he did.

“Pretty, I didn’t think I’d be seeing you again,” T-bag started.

The man who looked like Michael interrupted, speaking with a thick drawl. “Hand over the money.”

T-bag had not felt nervous around Michael in prison. If anything, Michael had given him the impression of someone who didn’t have it in him to kill another person. Looking at him now, however, he got an entirely different impression. “I was just keeping it safe for you, so why don’t we split it and then you can get more than you would have gotten splitting it with hundred dollar Mr. Africa and your Puerto Rican cellie.”

The man who looked like Michael moved up to him to stare into his eyes. “Mmm. How bout I just take it all and shoot you?”

“You don’t got it in you, Pretty. However, if you was to permit me to come along with you while you pull your disappearing act, I could be persuaded to give you a sixty percent share.”

The man shook his head and tightened his jaw. T-bag looked into his eyes and saw that they had gotten colder.

“Or more. We can split it three ways between your brother, you and me.”

“Again. You screwed up a job.” The man took another step forward. T-bag took a step back.

“I’m sure something can be arranged between the two of us. Maybe, I can just take ten percent it in exchange for a roll in the hay.”

“With you?” 

“Pretty, I’ve had my eyes on you since the day you was brought into Fox River. I’d be willing to let you go with a majority of the money in exchange for that.” 

The man looked up and down T-bag. “Don’t think so. Now, give me the money.”

T-bag took a step toward him. “Pretty, I may just find you afterwards and have my way with your pretty ass anyway.”

The man who looked like Michael raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you don’t understand what’s going on here. I am taking the money and leaving you alive, if you cooperate.”

“Pretty, you don’t have it in you.”

The man who looked like Michael pulled out an oversized gun that revved a cold, electric blue. With no change in expression, he shot T-bag with a blue beam of light. The last thing T-bag felt was his body flinching away from the coldness spreading through his belly.

Len stared down at the frozen corpse of T-bag determining that he had known rapists like that in Iron Heights. They were all awful. He gave the corpse a kick, then looked in the passenger seat of the car. Sure enough, the backpack was in there. He checked to make sure the money was in the backpack – showing up with the pack with no cash wouldn’t do. The pack was loaded with bundles of twenties. He inclined his head, tied the pack firmly onto his motorcycle, loaded T-bag into the car, and rode towards Michael and the others with the money.

“Hi, sis. The package is safe and sound.”

She hung up on the opposite end. “Boys, the money is in our possession.”


	8. The Truck, the Van and the Bike

“So we’re gonna pick him up in New Mexico. Why?” Linc asked.

“Our colleague is dropping him just this side of New Mexico. Then he’s going to walk across into New Mexico. And we’re going to meet him at a diner. That way our friend doesn’t get on the Feds on him for crossing state line-.”

“He’s helping us,” Linc said.

“He’s helping transporting your son as far as state borders. Then he’s dropping him off at a gas station and continuing on his way north.”

“Does LJ know what to do from there?” Michael asked.

Lisa inclined her head. “Our colleague has taken down precise instructions from Lenny and will give them to the kid.”

Michael nodded. “And those are to meet us just across the border in a diner? How won’t the Feds know where we are?”

Lisa gave all three of them a pitying look. “Remember Sinners & Saints?”

Michael nodded. 

Lisa inclined her head. “If any Feds walked into there, they’d be spotted a mile away.”

Linc leaned over to her. “We gotta pretend to be Mick and Len again?”

Lisa chuckled. “No, you’re getting there, but not quite close enough.”

Sucre seemed unsure. “How do we know they aren’t going to turn us in?” 

Lisa smirked. “Oh, because they all have rap sheets fifty miles long on some very interesting crimes.”

Linc shook his head. “Not all the people who are following us are necessarily on the up and up.”

Lisa tossed her hair. “No one’s interested, Linc. Trust me.” 

Michael said, “You said ‘not quite close enough.’ Are we meeting people who know them?” 

Lisa smirked at him. “Your mind works just like Lenny’s.”

Michael smiled at her. “Knowing what you feel for your brother, I’m complimented.”

“So how much like him do you actually look, Papi?” Sucre asked. 

Linc laughed. “A hell of a lot, Sucre.”

“Any relation?” 

Michael shrugged, as did Linc. Lisa shook her head. “Not brothers; that’s for sure, at least, not through Lenny’s mom. She died a couple years back, and besides, you aren’t related to her, not if you two are full brothers. Lenny’s mom was a black Jewish woman named Ella, and my mother wouldn’t make you related to Len at all. And Linc, you confirmed that our father wasn’t your father. So that leaves… cousins? Lewis never told us he had a sibling, and I feel that would have come up, at least when we were little, while our gramps was still alive.” 

Linc nodded, glancing at Michael. “Yeah, we’re full siblings.” 

Michael attention snapped to the radio. “Turn it up. They just mentioned something about Sara or her father.”

Sucre glanced at Michael. Linc turned up the radio. “Governor Tancredi found dead in his home this morning. The apparent cause was suicide. Do you have anything to report on this?”

Michael reached out a hand for Sucre, who clasped it. “I know, Papi. You love her.”

Lisa turned to gaze at Michael. “Do you think whoever’s after you…?” 

Linc nodded. “Yeah.”

Michael nodded. “Without a doubt. They were after us and I gave some information to Sara to give to her father. To try to get Linc out. He must have brought it up to the wrong people.”

“Like the President,” Linc said.

Sucre shook his head. “I still can’t believe the President wants you dead, Sink.”

Lisa shrugged. “Why not? He did supposedly kill her brother. If anybody harmed Lenny, I’d stop it nothing to see them dead.”

“This Lenny. What’s he do?” Sucre said.

Lisa smirked. “He’s a supervillain. Ever since the Flash came around.”

Sucre turned to Michael with a surveying expression. 

Michael raised an eyebrow. “Yes, can I help you?” Michael joked after a minute.

Sucre shook his head at him. “Sounds like something you would do, Papi.”

Michael gave a considering nod. 

Linc caught the consideration, far more than he liked, and responded, “We are not becoming supervillains, Michael.”

“It might be a way to get to Sara.”

Linc smacked the back of his head against the headrest. “You never got any crushes before. Did you have to get this one at the least convenient time imagined?” 

Michael ducked his chin. 

“We all know you do,” Sucre joined in before Michael could start denying it.

“I don’t want her harmed by our actions.” 

“As of yet, there have been no reports on the whereabouts of his daughter, Dr. Sara Tancredi, who was involved with the Fox River Eight’s daring escape from prison.”

Michael leaned forward to Lisa and gestured at a small gas station town. “Pull over up here. I want to send something.”

Lisa shook her head. “No go, Michael.”

Michael bristled. “This is my escape plan for getting my brother and me to safety. Unless you have a good reason, you don’t get to tell me what I can and cannot do.”

Lisa tossed her hair and made a barely concealed snarl. “I’m helping you, you moron. Where a letter goes, a Postal Service stamp will follow stating the zip code it was sent from. Besides, if they can’t find her, chances are they’ve already checked her apartment. So where is she supposed to get it anyway?”

Michael shook his head. “It’s in code. And we will be gone from here shortly.” 

Lisa nodded, impressed. “Oh good. So you and Sara have a pre-arranged code that no one else can crack.”

Michael frowned, tipping his head. “Mmm. Not exactly.”

“What do you mean, not exactly?”

“She’ll be able to figure it out.”

Lisa inhaled, counted to five, and exhaled through her nose. “Would anyone else, like the people who are tracking you, the people who tried to drown my brother to get information, the fucking Secret Service of the goddamn US government, be able to figure out this code if they oversaw what you are sending her?”

Michael opened his mouth to protest, nodded, and closed his mouth again. “Yes. I was not counting on being up against nearly such steep odds when I made this plan.”

Linc nodded. “They just keep getting steeper and steeper, don’t they?”

Sucre protested. “But we can’t just leave her there. If they killed her father because he knew something, aren’t they likely to kill her too?”

“I’ll go get her. You three pick up LJ and get to Bolshoi Booze. With the stuff from Central City.”

Lisa pulled the truck off to the side of the road and turned to Michael. “If you want me to take them somewhere, I have to know where it is.”

Michael met her eyes. “Linc knows where it is and how to find it, don’t you Linc. I’ll meet you in a few days.” He started to open the door of the truck.

She grabbed his collar. Linc and Sucre moved for the two of them. She had her gun aimed at Linc’s face in a swift motion before he could get close. She kept her attention on Michael. “Damnit! The one thing above all else Lenny taught me that you clearly still have to learn - you’re not in this by yourself! You have a team, and you look out for them, and there is always another way to do things. So consider, is there another way than sacrificing yourself to the Feds, or whoever’s after you, because you and I both know that’s what it would be. One shot and you’re done. Now use that big brain of yours and think of something.”

She released him. Linc and Sucre backed off. Lisa shrugged and leaned back, not looking at either of them dead on, but glancing at them out of the corner of her eyes like a cat deciding whether she can trust someone. Michael glanced at Linc then at Sucre, nodding to them both that he was okay. Lisa, on seeing Michael and Linc nodding at each other, made a thoughtful sound. “Michael, how likely would she be to get into a car with, say, Linc?”

Michael glanced at Linc again, realization of what Lisa was suggesting dawning on his face, and gave a slow nod, becoming more certain by the second. “She might.”

Linc said, “Why does it matter? We’re down here. She’s up there in Chicago.”

“Not you, but someone who looks a lot like you, who’s an hour away from Chicago.” 

Linc smiled, nodding at Lisa, impressed.

“He looks that much like you, Sink?” Sucre asked.

“Yes, he does,” Michael nodded and turned to Lisa. “The question is, would he be willing?”

“One way to check.” Lisa picked up her phone and flipped it open, dialing the number of her brother’s burner phone.

\--

“You owe me big time, buddy,” Mick said, hanging up his phone. Cisco, Barry, Caitlin, Iris and Joe all looked up at him.

“Did Tattoo mention to you idiots that he has a girlfriend up near Chicago?”

Cisco shook his head. 

“No, he didn’t, Rory.”

“Well, Snart is saying he wants to make sure she’s safe. Bring her here for a while.”

Joe rolled his eyes. “Oh, great. Why didn’t he think of that before he decided to break his brother out of prison? It seems to me like he thought of everything else.”

Mick sighed. “The idiot fell for the prison doc. Who had the misfortune of falling in love back. But here’s where it complicated. She’s the daughter of the governor. What’s his name? Tan-something.”

Iris gaped. “The Governor of Illinois, the one who killed himself this morning, Frank Tancredi?”

Barry stammered. “Wait. Governor Tancredi killed himself?”

Mick nodded. “Yeah, that’s the one. Only Lisa, Tattoo and Prez don’t think it was suicide. They think whoever’s after them offed Tancredi, and now is after his daughter. And nobody can find her, including the guy who tried to drown Snart, who was on the radio being interviewed about it.”

Barry said, “We’ve gotta bring her here then.”

Joe mouthed. “Why?”

Cisco winced. “He say how?”

Mick stared at a place on the floor and nodded. “Yeah, and it’ll work, but Snart didn’t like it and I don’t either. I don’t typically go out on the line for people.”

Iris took a look at Mick’s expression. “They’re wondering if you could go up there as Linc.”

Mick did a finger gun at her with a wink. “Got it in one, Writer Chick.” Iris raised her eyebrow.

Joe frowned. “That doesn’t seem smart. From the sounds of it, you’ll be walking into a warzone.”

Mick shook his head. “Since when do you care? You’re a cop. I’m a criminal.”

“Point.” Joe said, then went back to an earlier point, “He thinks it wasn’t a suicide?”

“They’re all sure of it,” Mick answered.

Caitlin said, “Well, to find her, it would take more than just you going up there disguised as Lincoln Burrows. We would have to know where she is.”

Cisco said, “What if I recalibrate my system for Chicago? Everything by her apartment?”

Barry nodded. “That would work. How quickly can you do that?”

Cisco shrugged. “Maybe a few hours.”

Mick shook his head. “We don’t have a few hours. Not if she stayed close to her apartment.”

“Felicity,” Barry and Caitlin suggested at the same time.

Cisco went over to his computer. “Hey, Felicity, babe.”

“Cisco?” came Felicity’s voice over the com.

“Can you help us find the daughter of Governor Tancredi?”

“Ooh. Why? Is she involved with a crime? I mean another one after the initial letting the Fox River Eight out by leaving her door open. Ooh. Did Michael plant her and now he wants her out?” Felicity’s voice sped up as she tried to figure out why they wanted her.

“He didn’t. But he’s worried whoever’s after him and his brother might also be after her,” Cisco related along. 

“Which is why she’s nowhere to be found,” Felicity concluded.

“Got it in one, girl,” Cisco said. “So I need access to the Chicago phone system.”

“Oh. Okay. Hang on a moment.” The phone went silent for about a minute. “Ooh. There we go! You should start getting it in just a minute.”

Sure enough, Cisco’s computer buzzed to life. “Thanks, girl.” He hung up.

“Now, all we need is a sound clip. Aha. Here’s one from her trial. Matching that with anything found over the past day or so. Wow, is that all the security you got on that? Okay. Guys, she called someone named Bruce Bennett this morning from an payphone at the intersection of... And there it is. Barry, you and Heatwave should go.”

“And me,” Caitlin insisted. Mick turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “She might be hurt,” she said by way of explanation.

“Hey, nobody’s going anywhere without me,” Cisco added. “It’s my truck and my tech.” 

\--

It was not the most awkward car ride each of them had ever had, but it was close. Ten minutes in, Cisco made a rule that Mick and Caitlin were to sit on opposite sides of the car, and that under no circumstances was Barry to start playing “I spy.” 

\--

Barry found Sara sitting in the abandoned church around the block and up a dead-end street from the payphone she had called the politician Bruce Bennett from, glancing at her flip phone’s keyboard and at the unfolded origami piece on which some kind of code was written.

“She’s in there.” He gestured at the church after he had zoomed back to the van.

“Okay. Spot me. I don’t want to be arrested and executed in a case of mistaken identities.” 

“Got it.”

Mick took a deep breath and settled forward on his feet a little, like he was walking around the prison yard when someone had a beef with him and set his face a little differently, younger, more earnest – he’d had to play grifter a couple times in Len’s plans, not often, but enough – then he stood up straight and smiled at them. Barry gaped at him. Cisco gave him a nod. Even Caitlin looked impressed. 

Mick entered the church through a broken boarded door, which must have been how she had gotten in there in the first place. “Sara?” he called out.

There was a scuffling sound. Mick followed it and found a woman, who matched the picture he had looked at, sitting on the ground next to a bag. Time to act his ass off. “Sara. Hey,” he did his best impression of Linc’s voice.

She squinted at him. “Linc! What are you doing here?” 

“We came back to get you,” he said.

She scrambled to her feet. “Where’s Michael?”

“You know Michael. Off making sure we don’t get caught.” It wasn’t a hundred percent a lie.

“Okay. Great. You heard the news about my father.”

He winced. “Yes. I did. I’m sorry.” He realized she was watching him. “There’s no way it was suicide.”

She nodded and stepped forward. “I agree. Someone came by to try to kill me in my apartment this morning and make it look like I ODed. Do we have a plan to reveal who they are?”

He tipped his head back and forth. “There’s a plan. For now, Michael just wants you safe.”

She took another step towards him. “Then let’s go.”

He looked around. “You have everything?”

She gave another nod. “Come on then.” He turned and started for the door and was pleased when he held the nailed up board out of the way for her and she took in from him with a nod of thanks that she was in fact following. So not as stupid in love as he was worried Michael might be, when Len had relayed along his message to go fetch and protect Michael’s crush. 

The van was parked down the street. Really more of an alley way to the church, which was set back a little. Which meant not a lot of people between the church and the van. They were able to walk to the van uneventfully and without passing anyone who memory might twinge for two people they had seen on the news. 

The van door slid open – thanks to Caitlin, who helped Sara into the van. “Who are you?” Sara asked.

“A friend,” Caitlin answered. Barry blurred in – Mick would really have to talk to him about the meaning of secret identity – and Caitlin helped Sara the rest of the way in, and Mick closed the door behind them.

“Linc, I don’t recognize any of these people. Where’s Michael?”

Mick sighed and pulled himself out of the posture he was acting. “Not Linc actually, Sweetheart.” 

Sara lunged for the door. Mick caught her. She kicked him and attempted to open the window and call out. He clapped a hand over her mouth. She bit down. “Ow. Fuck. You want to bust up Tattoo’s plan?” She stopped trying to bite him and kick him. “That’s right. I may not be Linc, but your boyfriend still sent us. He wants you safe. And that place you were hiding? Not very safe. Got it?” 

“Yeah, thanks. I gathered that, but it was safer than where I was, where someone tried to kill me. Now, if you don’t tell me who you are, I’m taking my chances.”

“Fair,” Mick shrugged. 

Her eyes were adjusting, judging by how she was squinting less and less and looking around the van more. She turned back to him and surveyed him again. “Are you another brother of his? A cousin?” 

Mick and Cisco laughed. “Not related actually,” Mick said. “But Prez and I laughed about it when we first encountered each other.”

“Prez? You call Lincoln Burrows ‘Prez’?” 

Mick shrugged. “He’s named Lincoln and he got himself on death row for supposedly killing the President’s brother. I had to call him Prez.” 

Sara shrugged but looked like any other day, she would have smiled at the pun. “What name do you go by?”

“Mick,” Mick introduced. 

Sara turned to Caitlin and Barry. “Who are you?”

“I’m Barry and this is Caitlin.”

“I’m a doctor as well. Well, more of a research scientist, but I can provide medical care as well.” Caitlin gave a smiled and a shrugged. “Are you injured?”

Sara shook her head. “Good to know there’s another doctor in this.” She nodded at Cisco. “Who are you?”

“I’m Cisco. Pleased to meet you.” 

Sara looked into the driver’s seat to get a face to match with his voice and name. “Hi. I’m Sara Tancredi.” She shook her head at herself. “Which… you already know.”

“We’re going to bring you to Central City, where you’ll be safe.” 

“Aren’t you worried about the police?” Sara asked, giving Mick a glance.

Barry leaned over to her. “I’m a CSI for the CCPD. I’m keeping them off Scofield and Burrows.”

Mick scoffed. “No, you aren’t. Snart and I are doing that.”

“Snart? Leonard Snart?” Sara said, looking around the car at Barry, Cisco and Mick, and Caitlin.

“Mmm hmm,” Caitlin nodded.

“The Leonard Snart?” 

Mick grinned. “The one, the only.”

Barry stared at Sara. “Wait? How do you know Snart?” 

Sara shrugged. “Only by reputation. A lot of the inmates admire him for his ruthless efficiency in doing what he does and his ability to avoid arrest.”

Mick laughed. “He is awesome. Isn’t he?”

Sara paused frowning. “Mick, as in Rory?”

Mick grunted. “What have you heard?”

Sara shook her head. “Only that if you were ever in Fox River, I should be sure to keep you away from fire and anybody abusing anyone else. There was a list of people that should not go anywhere near you, actually.”

Mick tipped his head. “Yeah, I don’t put up with any sort of shit in the can. Prison’s got enough problems as is without adding prison rape to the list.”

Sara inclined her head. “You nearly took a guy’s head off for it.”

Mick laughed. “Sans been talking?”

Sara nodded. “Sans and a few of the others who were there when you stabbed Wolf Whistle.”

Caitlin huffed. “Wait. You know the same person? Is that what you’re telling us?”

Mick snapped back, “I was telling Dr. Kickass here, but yeah.”

Cisco tipped his head. “Dr. Kickass? Really?”

“Says the guy who nicknamed me Heatwave,” Mick said, “Besides, she clearly kicks ass. I think I have a bruise from that. Teeth marks,” he held up his hand “Kinky.” Cisco opened his mouth. Mick took on a more serious tone. “Fox River ain’t exactly the Ritz when it comes to prisons. Besides, you already been up against the people who managed to dunk Snart into a bathtub and left him there. Anyone that does that and comes out standing deserves the name Dr. Kickass.”

Sara smiled. “Thanks. And thank you for that image of torture.” She shivered. “Why would Snart have been subject to the same people who wants Linc dead and who killed my father?”

Barry said, “Uhh.”

Cisco winced. 

Mick explained, “Tattoo and Snart look a lot alike.”

Sara spun around to him. “As similar as Linc and you look?”

Mick shook his head. “More so. Makes it a little awkward. Really hoping we aren’t related to them.”

Barry snorted, “You mean given that they’re brothers and you and Snart are married?”

Mick turned to him. “Yeah, that. In the future, Red, let us do the telling. If anyone finds out who could use it against Snart and me, like the Families, I’ll make sure you burn for it.”

Sara looked between them. “You’re husbands? With Snart?”

Mick puffed up. “What’s so hard to believe about that?”

Sara shook her head. “Only that from all reports Leonard Snart seems like he’d be more likely to kill somebody just for saying anything emotional than to take them up on that offer.”

Mick grinned and nodded. “I get the feeling that if he didn’t plan it, he would have. As it was, we filed the certificate in Boston, did a job there, got the certificate back, and got out of town before the pigs were any wiser.”

Sara shook her head and put her hand up between her and him, indicating he should stay outside of that radius. “I’m sorry. You’re a career criminal. I should…”

“You should what? Report me?” Sara bristled. Mick sat back. “You’re less kickass than I thought then.”

Barry, from where he had slid in the front passenger seat, said, “The CCPD knows where he is. And technically, there’s nothing linked to him in Central City still open.”

“I was still one of the doctors at a prison for a number of years,” Sara said.

Mick nodded, sliding into the seat closest to the door. “Which is why I’m just delivering you to Central City for Tattoo and Prez so you can stay safe and they can get to safety and then send for you to help find out who did this, Prison Doc.”

Sara slid into the empty seat next to Caitlin. “To Central City it is then.”

\--

“Miss, I was wondering if I could make a call,” Sucre asked Lisa.

“To who?” she said without looking back.

“To a friend of mine, Petey, who leant me the bike.”

“Michael, you trust him?”

Michael nodded. 

Lisa reached forward to the glovebox and pulled out a bag of phone. She fished one out and handed it to Sucre. “You know how to use a burner phone, right?”

Sucre nodded. “Course I do.”

“Good. Here you go.”

“Hi, Petey. How are you?... What? What are you talking about? Wait? What do you mean she said no? To Hector? Marita said no! I gotta go see her! I’m gonna call her first!” When he hung up, he was grinning. 

Michael was too. “She said no to your cousin?”

Sucre nodded. “She got up to the alter and then she said no, Papi.”

Linc laughed. “That’s great, Sucre.”

Lisa said, “Do you have her number and do you trust her?”

Sucre flipped open the phone again. “One way to be sure.”

“Theresa. Don’t hang up! Don’t hang up!” he said into the phone. 

“Here we go again,” Linc commented.

“I heard that Maricruz said no to Hector… Yes, I love her. Theresa, I love her so much!… Theresa, please, can you put her on? What? Why are you going to Mexico? So you’ve already booked it? Yes, I will wait here. Do you have caller ID? Have her call me back at that number.” He closed the phone and beamed. “Maricruz will call back within the hour.” 

“Good job, Sucre,” Linc said when he had closed the flip phone.

“I told you she would say no to Hector,” Sucre said.

“Uh huh,” Michael said. “Mexico, huh?” 

“They already booked the place for their honeymoon, so Maricruz and Theresa are going there as a vacation.”

“So I take it you want to go there,” Lisa said.

“Oh, hell yes. I want to go and see my Marita again and put my hand on her stomach and whisper sweet things to her as she falls asleep at night. And then I want to buy her a ring and propose to her. And be there when our kid is born.”

“You have a kid on the way?” Lisa asked.

“Yes.”

“Any ideas about names, Sucre?” Linc asked.

“I’m leaving names to Maricruz, man,” Sucre said. “Man knows when to get out of the way between a girl and baby names.” 

Lisa smiled. “How far along is she?”

“A couple months.”

“When you come back, if you decide to, you’ve got a safe spot in Central City,” Lisa told him.

“For me and Maricruz?” 

Lisa nodded. “And your kid. And the nice thing about Central is we’ve got great hospitals.”

“Thanks for the offer.”

“We might take you up on that offer if Panama doesn’t work out,” Michael said.

“You’d better clear your names. Otherwise, Lenny’s gonna be pissed off at you.”

Michael nodded. “We’ll get to Panama then work on clearing our names.”

Lisa inclined her head. “Good, because otherwise Lenny and Mick might have to take drastic measures, and I don’t want to know what those drastic measures are gonna be.”

Michael smiled. “Sucre, you should take her up on the offer. I think you’d like her team. Why don’t you tell him about Cisco?”

Lisa snapped her head around to glare at him in surprise. “What about him?”

“When you showed up to rescue me, I could swear I saw him looking like he had feelings for you.”

Lisa ducked her head. “He’s cute when he smiles.”

Sucre leaned forward. “Sis, you got it bad.”

“He had your number on speed dial,” Michael comment.

“What?” she said.

“I swear, Lisa, that means he likes you.” Sucre told her, “Do you like him back?”

Lisa’s cheeks lit up. “I won’t deny that spending time with him is nice.”

“Guys are idiots. You gotta tell him,” Linc cut in.

“Totally,” Sucre agreed. “I mean look at me. I went to jail because I was trying to turn over a bodega to get money to get Maricruz an engagement ring. And she still said no to my cousin.”

Lisa laughed. “Oh yeah? Well, Maricruz would probably have accepted your proposal even without a ring with how much in love with you it sounds like she is.” 

\--

Len was following their truck a few hundred feet back, far enough that it wouldn’t look to anyone like he was, close enough that he could still see if anyone else was following them too. He became aware of a black SVU he had been following for some time, tinted windows too, which meant they were following the truck and they were someone Important. 

Len put a little distance between them and kept a close eye on the SVU, wondering what they would do when the truck they were tailing had to make a pit stop. 

\--

Cisco’s van pulled to a stop by a road block. “What’s this?” Barry said. 

Cisco rolled down his window at the cops approaching. “Both of you, get down.”

Caitlin helped Sara under the seat, but it was tight. Cisco leaned out of the van to give them time. “Hi, officer, what seems to be the problem?”

“Where are you headed?”

“To Central City. Here’s my license.”

“We’re going to need to check your van,” the officer demanded.

“Why?” 

“Because the Fox River Eight might have left someone up here and we’re checking all vehicles larger than a sedan, that’s why.”

“Okay then. Though we typically go on this route. I am my colleagues work for STAR Labs. And we run up here when we need to-.”

“The one that was responsible for Central City’s awful explosion a year and a half ago.”

Cisco winced and looked at Barry. “That one. The head researcher on that project is no longer with us.”

The officer said, “I don’t envy you. Now if you could pull off so we can let the cars behind you through.”

Cisco sighed. “Okay.” Cisco pulled the van over to where the officer had indicated as Barry turned around to the back seat of the van. Sara was nowhere to be seen, but Mick and Caitlin had expressions of concern on their faces.

“There’s no way I’m fitting under there, Doc,” Mick said.

Caitlin nodded. 

Barry said, “What’ll we do? They’re going to inspect the car.”

Caitlin’s eyes widened with an idea. 

“What is it?”

“Mr. Rory, you will take off your shirt if you know what is good for you,” Caitlin told him.

“What?” Barry said.

“Just do it. Unless you want to be on death row from a case of mistaken identity.”

“Uh.” Mick frowned, but began taking off his shirt.

There was a sound from under the seat where Sara was. Cisco and Barry gaped as well. “How much of you is covered in burn scars?” Barry asked. 

“Arms, shoulders, back and ass. Why?” Mick said.

“Lincoln didn’t have any burns,” Sara said.

“Ahh. Smart thinking,” Mick nodded. 

“Be as you as possible, short of lighting anything on fire,” Cisco said and left the van. 

“As me as possible, huh?” Mick glanced at Caitlin, peeling his jacket off his shirts and throwing it back on.

“What are you doing?” Caitlin hissed. 

“Gimme a second,” Mick said, rolling up his sleeves so they showed off his burns up to the elbow. Then he sat back down on the seat, tucking his jacket so Caitlin could still see his burns peeking out on his sides. “Now I look like me.”

Nonetheless, the second the door was opened, there was still a call. “It’s Burrows.”

The cop went to grab him. “Get the hell off me!” Mick shouted. “I ain’t Burrows!”

“Step out of the vehicle! Hands on your head.”

“Wait! He’s telling the truth!” Cisco said. Caitlin tried to grab Mick as he was pulled from the van. 

“Cisco! Red! Caitlin!” Mick called out as another cop came over to tug on Mick as well. There must have been three of them all pulling on him at once. He reached for his pocket where his lighter was, hoping he could get them off of him for just a second.

Barry slammed the door open. “You got the wrong guy! I’m part of the CCPD! This is Mick Rory and he’s wanted in Central City! We need him to tell us how a bunch of fires were started! And no one knows fire better than Mick Rory, career arsonist!”

The cops let go of him. He was able to close his hand on his lighter, but the need for it was gone. They had backed off and were now focused on Barry. “CCPD? Prove it,” one of them demanded.

Barry pulled out his wallet and showed them all his CCPD ID. “See? Told you I was telling the truth. He’s consulting with us now ever since we got him help. And we need him to explain how a bunch of fires got started in Central City and whether we should believe the slum lords that they were accidents or whether they deliberately set their buildings on fire.”

Mick nodded. He could play along. “And no one knows fire better than a former arsonist.” He tossed his jacket back so the burns on his side were more visible and then set about adjusting his sleeves, leaving his forearms out in front of him where they could see the burn scars. Typically, seeing his burn scars got the same expressions on people’s faces. Yep, there it was, the expression of stupid horror as they tried to imagine how he had lived through the fire that he given them to him.

Cisco nodded. “I’m his friend.” He gestured at Barry, and we figured we could come pick up Rory here and the parts we needed in a single trip.”

“I was out of town, minding my own business, working at a metal work shop,” Mick said. “When these clowns busted in and begged me to come with them back to Central.”

“Okay, get back in the van.” They met Barry’s eyes. “Good luck with the arsonist slum lords.”

Barry nodded. “Yeah, we’re gonna need it.”

They piled back into the van and pulled out onto the highway again. Only then did Mick knock on the seat next to him and throw down a hand for Sara to grab. “We’re past the roadblock and in Missouri.” 

\--

Lisa pulled her truck into the last rest stop Arizona side of the New Mexico to have them get out and stretch their legs. Len watched as the black SVU pulled into the other side of the parking lot from them and pulled his bike halfway up the row from both the SVU and the truck. He got off the bike and began stretching, keeping an eye of the SVU. No one got out, just as he had thought. 

So he began walking up and down the sidewalk, stretching his arms over his head, making sure his hood was up and his goggles were down. Still no one got out. They probably assumed their tinted car windows kept them safe from prying eyes. Len smirked. That was the thing about his goggles. He had gone all out when getting them made. Nice polarized lenses, the works. The windows wouldn’t stand a chance. Only thing was to get close enough to see who was inside. He stretched again and paced back and forth. At this distance, he could see their heads turn away, back to the truck and he was fairly sure he saw a set on binoculars in there. So they had been watching him, but deemed him not to be a threat. Just a normal guy on a bike. 

Now that the truck had both their attentions he dropped behind a car and moved along the back of the cars in the parking lots. He unhooked his gun when he got to the last car, and then circled out to the main highway, out of even their periphery, and walked up to the SVU. 

He got a good view of them – blonde lady and brown douche-cut-haired man in suits and guns, two each on them, packed a hell of a punch to if Len judged right, which he typically did, it was just he didn’t typically have experience with these types of guns. But he had been playing game with the Flash, and gotten good at spotting tells. If they reached for them, he would freeze their arms. 

He knocked on their window. There was a scramble inside what sounded like guilty accusations. The window he had knocked on rolled down. The woman’s face met him on the other side. He focused his eyes on her and gave her a smile. In the corner of his vision, where he had to give them credit, he doubted he’d see if he was just a normal guy and not Leonard Snart, career criminal currently supervillain against the Flash, he could see the guy unhooking his gun. 

He drew his gun and charged it up, aiming it at the guy, who froze, staring at it with concern. Smart guy. “Who are you?” Len asked of the woman.

The woman surveyed him, and the gun – which involved taking her eyes off his face and turning her attention to the gun, which Len had to give her, involved ball of steel and knowledge that he would not fire the gun – and then turned back to him and replied, “I work with your father.”

Len tensed, feeling like he had just slid an ice cube down the back of his neck. “My father?”

The woman smirked back as his smirk faltered. “Aldo Burrows. I’m given to understand you met him once when you were ten.”

Len exhaled. “This just got interesting.”


	9. Plans Collide

In an office with varnished wood and clunky yellowing computers, someone stuck his head out of an office when a blond-haired agent walked by, scowling at the world around him enough that people got out of his way. “Agent Mahone, we have recovered eighty percent of the data on the hard drive.” 

Agent Mahone’s expression melted from one that promised a yelling to whoever bothered him to that of a dog who has just smelled the scent of a bone again and pointed all of its senses and body in that direction. “Good. Keep at it. And print up what you have so far. I want it on my desk in an hour.” 

The computer guy nodded. “I already have and it is.” 

Mahone nodded, impressed. “That’s really great. Agents, somebody get this man a coffee and a donut. He’s given us the first useful advance against the brothers,” he announced to the room, pointing at the computer guy. “Great job.”

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He walked off to his office, leaving the computer guy spluttering behind him, and closed the door. Once he was sure no one could hear, he flipped open the phone. “Yes?”

“Hello, Alex,” said the disembodied voice over the phone. Sly and slimy tone. Kellerman. Mahone stiffened. 

“Kellerman, I said I’d call when I had news.” 

“Do you or should we get someone else on the project,” the voice over the phone crackled in its threat.

Mahone wished he was face to face with Kellerman again, just once, so he could punch him in the face and wipe that tone out of his voice, the tone that said he owned Mahone and they both knew it. As it was, the news he was about to deliver would have to suffice. “Actually, we just had a breakthrough here, Kellerman. We found the brother’s hard drive and we currently have recovered eighty percent of the data on it, plans, what his tattoo means. Now do you have anything else to ask or will you let me do my job?” 

“Excellent news. Keep on it,” Kellerman’s voice sounded pleased. Then again, Kellerman could go screw himself. He considered winging the phone out the window onto the street below. 

\--

The brown mail-truck pulled up alongside the young hitchhiker, the passenger window on the truck down. The hitchhiker kept his head down under his hat and kept walking, despite the heat. The truck kept pace with him. The hitchhiker felt his heart try to jump through his chest with the thought that he was made, as his dad would put it.

“Hey, kid. You going our way?” said the man for inside the truck. 

The hitchhiker stopped, a smile growing on his face as he recognized the voice. He looked up at the truck window. “Dad?” He beamed up at him. 

“Hiya, LJ,” Linc greeted him, grinning just as big. Uncle Mike shoved his head halfway in the window as well. 

“Miss us?” Uncle Mike joked.

“You bet, Dad, Uncle Mike,” LJ said.

“Come on. Get in.” Linc nodded back into the truck. The door swung open and Uncle Mike and Linc and another guy pulled him in. There was a woman driving that he had never met before. He sat between the other guy and Uncle Mike.

“Hi,” he greeted the other guy and the woman. “I’m LJ.”

\--

Kelleman’s phone rang after he had gotten off the phone with the man who had been supposed to keep an eye on LJ. He bit his lip, took a deep breath and picked up the phone. “Mr. Kim.”

“Do you have a report?”

“Dr. Tancredi has unfortunately disappeared. I am trying to locate her again.”

He could hear Mr. Kim’s displeasure in the silent pause. “And the Burrows boy?” Mr. Kim added finally.

Kellerman gave his head a shake and swore under his breath. “Unfortunately, we are trying to locate him as well.” 

Mr. Kim scoffed. “You lost him.” 

Kellerman winced. “Only a minor setback. I am working on finding where Tancredi has gone and she will lead us to the brother.”

“She had better.”

“Mahone has also found that the data from the hard drive can be recovered. However, we are still waiting on him finding anything in there.”

“Someone had better find something. Otherwise, we will have to put someone else on it,” Mr. Kim said and hung up. Kellerman looked down at his phone and then slipped out the memory card and pitched it into a pond across the park walkway. 

\--

Diner. Just a sleazy, greasy joint on a southwestern highway where no one in their right mind would stop for a bathroom break or a drink unless they knew what it was. What it was, was the Low Crime capital of the southwest, at least for those that didn’t approve of human or drug trafficking, and didn’t want to keep company with those who did. It was a meetup place for hard working thieves in need of teams or intel. And when Len had been working on jobs around the southwest instead of Central when the heat got too much or when he wanted to keep an eye on Lisa while she was training for figure skating Pros, he’d swung by here often. 

He saw the UPS truck outside – fourth license plate, he nodded with approval – and as he swung the door open and took off his glasses, he saw Lisa tilt her head towards the bathroom from where she was sitting, just a girl drinking coffee at the counter. He understood the glance: Michael, Linc, Linc’s son and the man they had brought with them from Utah were in there, likely watching through the double-sided mirror, if they knew what was good for them. He gave her a polite nod – given the rarity of female thieves and the grace and pose she had, it was required that he notice her briefly anytime they played at not knowing each other – met eyes with her to let her know he saw, and turned to the host to request a booth. “Meeting someone here,” he said.

The host nodded to a window booth and offered him a menu. Len knew about the menus in this place and even if he didn’t need anything that was on the back pages, he took it nonetheless and slid into the empty booth. 

The woman and man he had seen driving the SUV walked in, surveying the place, along with a white-haired man who stood on the balls of his feet as though his muscles were comfiest doing so. He surveyed in smoother, calmer motions, eyes taking in everything from each section of the room before they fell on Len. 

Len inclined his head at the man. The man nodded back then tipped his head at the woman and the man. The woman went to the counter, pulling out the stool next to Lisa, likely to survey the diner in much the same way Lisa was doing. The man in the bad suit walked with him then sat down in another empty booth by Len’s table. Neither of them stopped with the host, which meant unfamiliarity with the place. The white-haired man passed him and continued to Len’s booth and gestured at the empty seat across the table. Len pointed at it and inclined his head and did not take his eyes off the man as he slid into the seat. 

“Michael,” he greeted once he had sat.

Len inclined his head to the side and met the man’s eyes.

The man surveyed him back. “You aren’t Michael.”

“How bout you tell me what led you to that conclusion and I will tell you if I’m Michael or not,” Len said.

The man’s eyes glittered, but other than that grin in his eyes, his expression did not change. “Your eyes showed no recognition, wariness, horror or anger.”

“Sizing you up,” Len responded, filing away the information that this man had done something to Michael that he considered worthy of Michael’s horror, and recognition meant he had seen him more recently than when he was born.

“You’re colder, a good deal more like Michael and Linc’s mother.”

Len twitched his head to indicate that he wanted more information. “Never met her.”

“She’s… interesting.” 

Len met his eyes. The man inclined his head. “She’s supposed to have died of cancer,” Len accused in a dropped voice. 

The man inclined his head. “A lot of things are supposed to have happened. I’m supposed to have been a no-good, two-timing drunk who ran off one day out of the blue on a trip to the store to get cigarettes.”

Len squinted, which under his eyelashes gave the impression he had closed his eyes in a grimace while still letting him observed the world around him. “Clearly, she’s met someone I know.”

“Clearly,” the man responded after studying Len’s expression for a minute.

Something moved out of the corner of Len’s eye so he glanced at it from under his eyelashes, and he saw Michael standing there outside the bathroom next to Linc, who had his arms clasped around LJ. Michael’s face spoke of something catastrophic going on with his emotions. 

The blonde lady saw them too and glanced at the white-haired man and Len before sliding to her feet, reaching for her gun. Len sighed and counted to five as everyone reacted at once: Lisa drew her gun and had the blonde lady disarmed and in a choke hold before the lady likely knew what hit her; the host had also pulled a gun and had it aimed at her; and the white-haired man across from Len turned around with a frown on his face as something he didn’t calculate was happening around him.

Then, he set eyes on Michael and Linc and nodded. “Jane. Drop it,” he said and glancing at Len, he asked, “Know her?”

“Lisa, wait for Jane to put the gun down then reholster yours. No need to turn her platinum gold today.” Len glanced back at the white-haired man with a smirk. 

Lisa smirked and said to the woman, “Too bad. You get to keep your blonde hair today.”

The white-haired man nodded. “Turn her gold?”

Len inclined his head. “Her hair is offensively platinum,” he drawled the pleasantry, deliberately misunderstanding the question.

The white-haired man narrowed his eyes in recognition that Len knew exactly what he had meant and just refused to answer and turned his body to face Michael and Linc. “Hello again, Linc, Michael.”

Linc shoved LJ behind him. “What do you want, Dad?”

“That’s our dad?” Michael asked in a strange voice. Len glanced him up and down, noting how his hand sought something to grip onto and how his jaw tightened. 

“Yeah, you’ve never met him.”

“Actually, I have.” 

The white-haired man gave a nod of approval. “Knew you’d remember, son.”

Len could see Michael’s knuckles turning white on the back of the chair.

“What? When?” said Linc, turning between the two of them. Michael seemed to just be staring at the white-haired man.

“Michael,” Len prompted.

Michael stepped forward, gazing at the white-haired man. The white-haired man gazed at him, watching his moves until Michael was within a distance where if either had wanted to they could have leaned forward and embraced. Then, in a swift motion, Michael decked him in the jaw.

Linc, LJ and Sucre gasped, and Jane leaned to get her gun. Lisa restrained her again and aimed her gun at her. The white-haired man held up a hand to indicate he was alright. Jane stopped, and Lisa took her target off her. Len met the host’s eyes to let him know that everything was on the up and up. 

“When I was eleven, one of the foster parents I was with locked us into a closet whenever social services wasn’t there. He would take us out only to feed us and yell at us.” Michael’s voice had gone monotone, as though reciting a story with no impact on him. Len wondered if having him see Mick’s shrink might do him some good. “Then, one day, while I was locked into the closet, there was a scuffle outside. The door opened and you were there. You picked me up and told me not to look, but I looked and saw that you had shot that foster father in the head.”

The white-haired man gave a slow nod. “Nobody abuses my children and gets away with it.”

“Linc was in there for years. Why didn’t you do something?” Michael shook his head, glancing at Linc and LJ.

“That’s what they would have wanted. They were trying to lure me out,” the white-haired man said.

Len turned to survey Jane’s expression then he turned back to face the white-haired man after having determined the man was probably fairly justified in his paranoia. “Who’s they?”

The white-haired man shut his eyes. “That is a conversation to be had somewhere more private.”

“Somewhere you’ll suggest, I take it.” The white-haired man inclined his head. Len scoffed. “Why should any of us trust you?”

The white-haired man turned to Len and raised his eyebrows. “I’m their father.”

Len gave him a wry and dangerous smirk. “Even if you are, what makes you trustworthy?”

The white-haired man took a few steps closer to Len, like a prowling cat focusing on an annoyance. Len scoffed at the impression and let him come. “I’m sorry. Who are you, again?”

“I’m Leonard Snart, the man your sons hired to get them to safety and clear their names. How do you figure into that? Tell me now. Otherwise, I’m taking them and walking out that door.”

“I’m Aldo Burrows. And you might want to hear what I have to say.”

Len hoped his face looked as bored as he felt.

It must have because the white-haired man – Aldo – continued, “I know of a tape that can clear Linc’s name.”

Len inclined his head. 

“How?” Michael asked.

“It is evidence the President’s brother is still alive.” The entire room inhaled. Aldo, seeing as he had their attention, continued, “But you’ll find things are a little more complex than just that.”

\--

All of them continued to Aldo’s safehouse, Len on his bike; Aldo, Jane and the man in the suit in Aldo’s car; Linc, Michael, LJ, Sucre and Lisa in Lisa’s truck. On the way to their vehicles, with a nod of their heads, Len and Lisa agreed to notify Mick and Cisco where they would be.

Mick hung up the phone after listening and nodding then nodded at Cisco, who was also finishing on his phone call. “Got the message, Heatwave. I’m tracking them via computer.”

Mick came over to where Cisco was standing by the computers to observe. Cisco glanced up when he noticed how close Mick was to him. Mick saw the alarm in his posture and grinned at him, raising his eyebrows, but did set himself back on his feet to make himself appear as non-threatening as a 6’2” guy with broad shoulders, a shaved head and burn scars can. Whether it was the grin and eyebrow wiggle or the change in posture, Cisco breathed like normal again and turned back to his computer. “See this?” He pointed at a spot on the map. “That’s Cold.” Mick grinned at how Cisco called Len that even when he wasn’t in the area. When he next saw him, he would have to tell him. “That’s Lisa, Michael and Linc. And Lisa’s good. I told her if they ran into anyone of interest to slip a marker on them as well. She must have done it because there’s the last car.”

“Shoes.” Mick nodded, peering at the computer. 

“You mean Aldo?” Cisco frowned. “How did you get from one to the other?”

Mick shrugged. “Women’s shoe brand. I went shopping with Lisa a couple times.”

Cisco beamed before he remembered who he was talking to and wiped the glee off his face.

“Snart doesn’t like him. Shoes throws an extra wrench into Snart’s plans. Could potentially screw things up.”

“Did Cold tell you about the tape?” 

“He said he was going to hear him out about it. But, judging by how this ass didn’t come forward about it till now, even if there is a tape, there’s a reason he can’t get to it.”

Cisco nodded. “Point. It says here that Burrows was on trial and going through the appeals process for three years, which may I just say is really short.” 

“Yeah. There was a guy in one of the prisons when I was in who was going on twenty years of death penalty appeals. Pigs were going to throw him a party when he got there. So yeah, there’s a reason he couldn’t get to it before now, and it ain’t related to him not having a good enough thief to get it for him.”

Cisco turned to survey Mick. “You come up with that theory or did Cold?”

“What’s it matter?” Mick put his shoulder back up. 

Cisco shrugged and offered Mick a gummy candy from his desk, which Mick took and popped in his mouth. Then Cisco unwrapped a lollypop of his own and shoved in in his mouth, peering back at the computer as the vehicles turned off the highway. “Hello, where are you going now?” 

\--

The mansion they got out at looked like a type like the Santinis loved and the Darbynians thought was too high class for them. Taking a look at Linc’s discomfort with the place and the entrance hallway, Len determined Linc agreed. He took a glance at Michael: the man appeared just as uncomfortable around the mansion, as he, according to Linc at least, had even less familiarity than Linc with this kind of house. Sucre hung close to LJ, who didn’t seem as out of his depth but was still impressed by the house, so one of his friends must have had a place like this or something. Lisa got out and ignored the house, because she was familiar with this style of house from parties during her figure skating years.

Jane and the man in the bad suit walked into the house followed by Aldo with Linc who took LJ – Len could have sworn he heard LJ say something like “This is the same dad who walked out on you?” to which Linc responded, “Things are complicated.” – and Michael took Sucre and whispered something to him. That left Lisa to nod to Len, and Len to incline his head back before they entered the house, laying a hand on his chest pocket as he did. 

Once they were all seated on, or in Len’s case lounged over the back of, couches around a coffee table, with Jane and the man in the suit standing guard, and had all been watered, given the June heat, Aldo put down his own glass and leaned forward. “The reason I bailed on you all those years ago was because of the Company.”

“So you’ve said,” Linc replied, “What is this company?”

“A corrupt multinational organization determined to put people in all the right places to get power to continue operating as it sees fit.”

“Bored now. What else is new?” Len said from his couch, tossing the little puzzle ball he’d danced his fingers across on his way past a bookshelf into the air and catching it. 

Aldo turned to Len like he wanted to strangle him. 

“I’m already familiar with Queen Consolidated, which tried to kill Starling City’s slums not so long ago to make room for a development, with the head of Lexcorp all but appointing himself Metropolis’ mayor – I’d vote for him for President if he runs, if I could vote, but too many times being arrested for felonies, what can you do? – Additionally, STAR Labs in Central City, where Dr. Wells designed a particle accelerator and the thing that was living in the sewers awhile, while presumably paying bribes and blackmail to keep the authorities from looking too close. So, I repeat, what else is new?”

The angry expression dissolved into one that was more interested in discussing politics with Len. “The scale. This corporate conspiracy is global and has amassed enough power to start a war should it choose.”

“United Fruit,” Len pointed out.

Aldo nodded. “Yes, around that level.”

Linc prompted, “How is any of this related to Terrence Steadman? And why is he still alive?”

Aldo sighed. “Two reasons. One, they had to have him disappear and the easiest way was to fake his death. “Two, they wanted to have me come out of the woodwork, but I doubt Steadman or the President are aware of that reason.”

Len asked, “Why did they have to have him disappear? And why would they want you to come out of the woodwork?”

“The Ecofield corruption scandal,” Michael remembered.

“What about it?” Linc asked.

Aldo nodded with a proud, little smile on his face. “How about you tell?”

Michael said, “He was in charge of Ecofield. Information was leaked that it was a very corrupt company, in a large enough way to potentially bring it down if it was investigated. With Steadman killed, they couldn’t ask him any questions in the investigation.” 

Linc lunged at Aldo. “You son of a bitch!”

Michael and Sucre caught Linc mid-lunge, and Michael squeezed his shoulder as they returned him to his seat. Linc remained seated but crossed his arms across his chest, glaring at Aldo.

Linc explained, “You son of a bitch. You leaked the information about them and they knew it was you. And I was working there at the time, so not only did they fire me, but they also used me as bait. Just ‘cause you weren’t subtle enough! They used me as bait to get to you!”

Len sighed, “Although that also explains why you couldn’t exactly leak where the tape with the evidence was,” Len summed up. Aldo nodded, adjusted his collar from Linc’s strangulation attempt.

Linc and Michael turned to Len. 

Len explained, “If they knew the way he leaked information, they’d be able to track him down better if he handed over additional evidence. Set a trap, that kind of stuff.”

“Still doesn’t mean he didn’t hand over the evidence that made them arrest me.” Linc shot his father a glare.

Len inclined his head. “Yes, he did, and he handed it over in a sloppy enough fashion to let them know it was him. Which may I just say…” Len glanced at Aldo and shook his head.

Linc gave Len a grateful expression. 

Aldo frowned. “Yes, I regret that it was done in such a fashion, but I became aware of what was going on at Ecofield and felt it necessary to let the public know. You were regrettably working there at the time.”

Len leveled a gaze at him. 

Aldo shifted uncomfortably under it. “Are you sure you and Michael weren’t switched at birth?”

Len chuckled. “I’m the same age as Linc.”

Aldo nodded. “And there’s no way Christina could have been pregnant with you without me knowing about it.”

Len closed his eyes. “We already did the math and figured that the closest we could be is cousins. But my grandfather was still alive for a few years there and would have mentioned if my dad had any siblings, particularly when he was sick and considering the foster system for us. But as Michael here seems to have found out the hard way, the foster system also sucks.” He leveled Aldo with a gaze.

“Coming with me would not have been safe. They both would have excelled at it, of course, but it would have been no childhood at all.”

Len met Michael and Linc’s gaze, enough to see that they had both guessed that they would have excelled at whatever their father was doing. “You could have stayed with them,” Len suggested.

Aldo shifted from his stance at ease in his own house to one that was a lot more alert, vigilant, and prepared to strike at any minute. Len’s lips curled up in a smirk as he recognized the man as a criminal in another guise, and he inclined his head at Aldo. “That wouldn’t have been an option for me leaving the Company, not with what I knew about them.”

Linc growled, “So you did it to stay alive?”

Aldo turned to him, relaxing halfway back into his at-ease posture. “I did it to keep you safe. If I never showed up there, they wouldn’t look at you two too closely. Which if they had, they would have recruited you in a second, you to be an operative and eventually a hitman, like me; you,” – he turned to Michael – “They would have cut any morals out of and sent you to work with their best and their brightest. You both would have excelled at it, of course. And then they’d get their hooks into you,” – he gestured at Linc then turned to Michael, “And you’d be too invested to ever want to leave.” 

Len caught the puzzle ball again, rotated around so his feet were on the floor and undid the puzzle in his hands, setting it down on the table.

“In what exactly?” Michael asked.

“They employed your mother for a number of years in their science division. Rumor is, she enjoyed it a lot.” Aldo grimaced. Len watched the minute motion Aldo also did where he met Jane’s eyes and then eyed the puzzle box and her slight nod in reply.

Len pulled something out of his pocket. There was a momentary expression of annoyance on Aldo’s face as he – and Michael – recognized it as a little gyroscope toy from an entrance way table. Len saw Aldo’s expression and gave the gyroscope toy a little spin, dancing it from one hand to the other, and gave Aldo a little smirk. 

“Did they?” Michael’s voice had gone into that quiet tone that Len imagined was a sign that he was at his most dangerous.

“Yes,” Aldo turned back to Michael.

“She could still see us,” Michael said.

“She wasn’t working as an Operative.”

Len interrupted, “Assuming you weren’t a dirtbag father and just an absent one, oh, all your kids’ lives, how ‘bout you tell us what you been doing since you left, since Operative isn’t really descriptive?” 

Aldo held Len’s eyes with an expression that he was there by Aldo’s sufferance alone, but that as he wasn’t completely useless, he could stay. “There’s a piece of technology held by the Company that contains valuable information on all the people they hold something over on and on all their operatives and operations. If we can get it, we can give copies to the DOJ and the UN and get the Company shut down and many of its operatives, its general and its executives arrested.”

Lisa gave a loud laugh. The others in the room turned to face her. Aldo with annoyance, Michael with a frown, Linc with amusement, Sucre with an interested tilt of his head, LJ still with the same wide-eyed expression he had had when he had first set eyes on her, and Len with a small, mostly hidden but proud smile on his face.

Lisa shook her head and turned to Aldo. “Do you know it actually exists and is not just a McGuffin to keep you running in circles?”

Aldo snapped back at her. “Of course it actually exists. I have it from the Director himself that they were designing something like it. I just can’t figure out exactly where it is being housed.”

Lisa glanced at Len and continued, “Why do you think someone wouldn’t have already extracted this information, someone gifted with a computer?”

Aldo glanced at her with far more interest on his face. “As far as I can tell, it is not connected to any internet. Too dangerous for exactly that reason. Additionally, the design of it is rather complex. It is called Scylla as in –“

Michael replied, “As in the Greek mythological creature with six heads.”

Aldo smiled at him. “Yes, Michael, as far as I can tell, it requires six parts of it to work. Now if only I could find out what the six parts are and where they are being held in addition to the main component itself…”

Len said, “Maybe we can put multiple heads together for ourselves and think up where they could be keeping it.”

Mick’s voice came out of Len’s chest pocket. “Nah. It doesn’t just contain that.”

Michael, Linc, Sucre and Aldo all turned Len’s direction. Len held up a flip phone and shrugged. Aldo’s expression had gone murderous and cold, and he pushed himself to his feet, shifting his jacket out of the way.

Len watched this and made a sound of derision at it. “No need to draw your gun. Aldo Burrows, meet Mick, my partner. Aldo, say hello so my partner can get your voice.”

Aldo did not back down. “Why were you taping this discussion?”

Len shrugged. “Was having him listen in ’cause he’s my partner and should know what’s going on.”

Aldo turned to Linc. “Did you know about this?”

Linc glanced at Len, then at Michael. “I met his partner. He’s a good dude. Didn’t know he called him, but it makes sense.”

Aldo sat back down, though he was still gazing at Len. “He can hear me over that thing?”

“Yeah,” came Mick’s voice.

“Very well, I’ve been doing actual research on this device longer than you’ve been out of elementary school.”

Len raised his eyebrows. Mick scoffed. “Yeah, but you ever seen what’s on it?”

Aldo stared at Len who was gazing back at him with a triumphant smirk. “No. But neither have you,” he said to both Len and Mick.

“True,” Mick answered, “But as a hitter, I wouldn’t keep info on people only electronically. I’d keep it in a safe that would destroy the person if they tried to break into it wrong. I’d also keep an uncertain number of other copies in various other locations. The assholes trying to break into it wouldn’t know how many copies there were. So they wouldn’t gain anything from trying to get at just one.”

Aldo tipped his head. “That’s… a very intelligent suggestion actually.”

Mick made a sound of appreciation. “It’s how I do it.”

Linc turned to the phone. “Who do you got blackmail on and why?”

Mick shrugged. “Various people. Probably the entire KCPD and CCPD. Just in case we need it.”

Len inclined his head. “It was easier back in the day when the entire departments were corrupt jackasses.”

At the emphasis Len put on the last two words there, Lisa straightened up just a little and slid the gesture into reaching forward for her glass of water, and Mick just grunted over the phone. Michael’s eyes flicked over Lisa and Len.

Linc asked, “If that’s the case, what else would they store on this device?”

Lisa turned to him. “What does the Company make exactly?” Aldo turned to her, surveying her. She let him, then met his eyes. “Yes?” she asked.

“You’re dangerous,” Aldo commented.

Lisa gave a small smirk. “We’re all dangerous, Aldo. We’re criminals. It’s what we do.”

Aldo gave a nod. “Not so long ago, I would have snatched all of you up to join the Company. You would have done very well.”

“We prefer to be on our own team.” Len met Aldo’s gaze with his own, leaning forward to pick up his glass of water while not breaking eye contact. Aldo held Len’s vision with his own bristly expression.

“It must be something having to do with what they do, if they are an actual company,” Michael said into the pause, glancing at Lisa. “Are they?” He turned to Aldo.

“They are, but there was a very strict division between the Operatives and the Scientists,” Aldo glanced over at Michael and Linc. “I was never involved with what they were researching.”

“So it’s a science lab then?” Len asked. “Broken into science labs before. Hell, it’s a game I play with a few of Central City’s labs. Break in, take a few things, see if they notice.”

Aldo smirked and then realized what he was doing and wiped any sign of it from his face. Len turned to raise an eyebrow at him. 

“They almost certainly have their IP on there then. Wells kept his files on a secret computer in a secret room according to Cisco.”

Len turned to Lisa and raised an eyebrow, tensing up from his previous acting relaxed posture. Over the phone, Mick’s voice said, “Boss, want me to rough him up a little?”

Lisa rolled her eyes. Len smirked and responded, “Nah, Mick. It won’t be necessary with this one. He ain’t Scudder.”

There was grumbling on the other end of the phone, but Lisa flashed her brother a happy, little smile.

“Scudder?” asked Linc. 

Lisa winced and responded, “Just your garden variety asshole.”

Linc said, “One you did jobs with?”

Len nodded.

Aldo peered at Len. “Any use to us?”

Len got a weirded out expression on his face and began to shake his head. “No. He’s…” He paused, chewing on his lips while looking at Lisa. “Ain’t actually seen him since the night of the particle accelerator.” 

Lisa leaned forward into her hand. “Is that what happened to him?”

“You mentioned a particle accelerator earlier. What was it?” asked Aldo. 

Around the room, Len, Lisa and Michael made similar wince faces. “Long story,” Lisa said.

“One of the labs in Central City blew up when its particle accelerator experiment went wrong. The wave hit a number of people making them super-humans with interesting abilities. Most of them, as with most people who suddenly get superpowers, decided to get revenge on either the guy who ran the lab or various people they were pulling jobs with who double crossed ‘em or put ‘em behind bars.”

Aldo stared. “So you got a bunch of supervillains running through your city is what I’m hearing.”

Len smirked. “Yes.”

Aldo gave a nod. “I must admit, I don’t typically care about superheroes and their supervillains. No superhero is going to care about a corruption scandal the size of the Company. They tend to like easy missions: over, done with, photo opp, kiss the baby, fly off into the sunset.”

Len shrugged. “Captain America.”

Linc nodded. “X-men.”

Aldo shook his head. “Actual superheroes. Captain America and X-men are just comic books.”

Len leveled Aldo with a gaze. “Flash’ll give you a run for your money.”

“Flash?” Aldo looked incredulous.

“Central City’s superhero. Kid hates corruption just enough to help out…” Len froze, glancing around the room. “Where did the man in the bad suit go?”

Aldo looked around and met Jane’s eyes. Both of them turned to where the man should have been standing and wasn’t. They both pull their guns out, Aldo out of his back holster hidden by his jacket, Jane out of her hip holster, and go into what Len recognized as job mode. Even in this, Aldo only tensed a little, but he gave off the impression that he was ready to move into quick action at the drop of a hat.

Len nods at Lisa. “Sis, you get Michael, Linc and the others out of here. Aldo, you know the layout better than me; you lead the way.” He pulled his cold gun out of its holster and buzzed her up. “Mick, gotta go on silent, buddy.”

“Got it, boss.”

Aldo nodded at him and then stared at the gun with its glowing blue tip. “One of my acquisitions from one of the lab runs,” Len replied to his unspoken question. 

Aldo gestured down for him to follow him and for Jane to go down the opposite hallway. Len did, gun at the ready. Aldo walked ahead of him, footsteps silent on the floor, as Len crept behind him down the hallway, silent as a thief in the night. The hall up ahead was silent, not even the creak in the floor made by their weight, which meant that any warning noise the man in the bad suit might have made on the floor was out. Visuals alone would have to do. Aldo’s stance said he was likely a quick draw, unless he used stance and fists alone to get info out of people, or unless he was a sniper, use to having time to set up the shot. Len found himself wondering who was faster, himself or Aldo, just a little game he played with people in the criminal underworld that tended to work out in his favor.

They turned out of the hallway, having checked the doors – bathroom and a closet – and crept into the living room. There was a faint movement from a door and one of the curtains.   
Len had his gun up before Aldo had drawn and had fired his gun by the time the silencers coughed. 

The bullet hit the cold field and slowed. Len knew it was still moving and turned to Aldo to make sure he was moving fast enough to get out of the way.

Aldo was standing there with a frown on his face.

Len ran at him and pulled him out of the way. 

The bullet skimmed Aldo’s arm, burning his shirt and his flesh underneath it as it went. If Len had not pulled him away the bullet would have struck his heart. Aldo met his eyes for half a heartbeat, long enough for both of them to realize the other one knew it.

Then Len fired his gun full and fast across the room where the bullet and early warning movement had come from. 

The man in the bad suit hit the floor, face and chest iced over, though still gasping for breath.

Aldo tensed and his eyes went wide. Len guessed that were he any less controlled, he would have jumped. 

“Left him alive in case you wanna question him. Can thaw him out without permanent damage too if you like his answers. It’ll just hurt like hell till I do,” Len told Aldo.

Aldo nodded. Len could see himself going up in Aldo’s estimation. Not that he cared. Aldo turned his attention back to the man in the bad suit and set his foot atop the ice on the guy’s chest. The guy hissed in pain. Len couldn’t say he blamed him, but as with his crews, the man should have known better than to betray the crew. Aldo aimed his gun at the man, met his eyes, and shot without making an expression.

Jane ran in. Aldo met her eyes, and she gave a curt nod, eyes flicking from the ice on the man’s chest to the gun still fired up in Len’s hands. Len smirked at her and powered down the gun. She lowered her gun as well. 

“Why don’t we finish the discussion on how we’re going to get this six-part device back in Central City?” Len said. 

Aldo glanced down at the man bleeding out on the floor. “Alright.”


End file.
